Hypertension Onset May Occur Earlier in MS Patients Born After 1965

The following article is part of conference coverage from the 8th Joint American Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) and European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) MSVirtual2020 event. Neurology Advisor‘s staff will be reporting breaking news associated with research conducted by leading experts in neurology. .

Individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) born after 1965 may present with hypertension (HPT) earlier than controls in the same time period, according to research recently presented at the 8th joint meeting of the Americas and European Committees for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis, held virtually from September 11 to 13, 2020.

This retrospective study included 141,696 individuals with incident diagnoses of HPT in Ohio between 2000 and 2017, all identified in the Cleveland Clinic Health System. Among these individuals, 546 were found to also have incident MS and were matched to ≤10 controls by birth year and age at first encounter (+/- 3 years for each), as well as sex, race, and zip code.

The final data set included 509 individuals with MS and 4,522 matched controls, with 87% of MS cases matched to ≥7 controls. Cox Proportional Hazards and linear regression models were used to examine the significance of age at onset of HPT among those with MS. The study researchers constructed a categorical variable of birth year as a covariate.

Among those born after 1965, those with MS experienced a 1.37-times increased hazard ratio (95% CI, 1.12-1.68; P =.0025) for earlier HPT onset compared with controls, with an average difference in onset of 0.7 years (95% CI, 0.05-1.4; P =.04). This difference was not observed in other birth year quartiles. Those with MS had a 73% higher likelihood of HPT onset (hazard ratio 1.73; 95% CI, 1.17-2.55; P =.006) than controls, with a 1% decrease per successive year of age. 

These results suggest that individuals with MS who were born after 1965 may experience an earlier onset of hypertension compared with those without MS. However, the study authors conclude that “future research is needed to characterize these relationships by sex and race, as well as the timing of [hypertension] onset with respect to MS onset.”

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Reference

Krill D, Hill E, Conway D, Briggs F. Multiple sclerosis predisposes affected individuals for an earlier onset of hypertension. Presented at: 8th Joint American Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis and European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis MSVirtual2020 event; September 11-13, 2020. Abstract P0479