Association of Periodic Limb Movements and Obstructive Sleep Apnea With Risk of Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea is a well-established risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Recent studies have also linked periodic limb movements during sleep to CVD. We aimed to determine whether periodic limb movements during sleep and obstructive sleep apnea are independent or synergistic factors for CVD events or death.

Methods and results: We examined data from 1049 US veterans with an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) <30 events/hour. The primary outcome was incident CVD or death. Cox proportional hazards regression assessed the relationships between the AHI, periodic limb movement index (PLMI), and the AHI×PLMI interaction with the primary outcome. We then examined whether AHI and PLMI were associated with primary outcome after adjustment for age, sex, race and ethnicity, obesity, baseline risk of mortality, and Charlson Comorbidity Index. During a median follow-up of 5.1 years, 237 of 1049 participants developed incident CVD or died. Unadjusted analyses showed an increased risk of the primary outcome with every 10-event/hour increase in PLMI (hazard ratio [HR], 1.08 [95% CI, 1.05-1.13]) and AHI (HR, 1.17 [95% CI, 1.01- 1.37]). Assessment associations of AHI and PLMI and their interaction with the primary outcome revealed no significant interaction between PLMI and AHI. In fully adjusted analyses, PLMI, but not AHI, was associated with an increased risk of primary outcome: HR of 1.05 (95% CI, 1.00-1.09) per every 10 events/hour. Results were similar after adjusting with Framingham risk score.

Conclusions: Our study revealed periodic limb movements during sleep as a risk factor for incident CVD or death among those who had AHI <30 events/hour, without synergistic association between periodic limb movements during sleep and obstructive sleep apnea.