Narcolepsy-CVD Link: Stage Is Set as Early as Childhood

Key Takeaways Narcolepsy was linked to high blood pressure, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes on top of outright cardiovascular disease events in a retrospective cohort study. Notably, patients with narcolepsy started showing an excess subclinical CVD risk in early life, suggesting a potential role for early monitoring and treatment. The observational study was based on a Medicare and commercial insurance database.

The link between narcolepsy and cardiovascular disease (CVD) was strengthened by new evidence that the relationship applied to subclinical disease and was apparent early in life, based on a retrospective cohort study. Across the U.S.



, patients with narcolepsy were more likely, compared with propensity-score-matched patients without narcolepsy, to have in their records a diagnosis of: Hypertension (HR 1.40, 95% CI 1.34-1.

47) Hyperlipidemia (HR 1.41, 95% CI 1.35-1.

47) Diabetes (HR 1.50, 95% CI 1.38-1.

64) Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease/nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NAFLD/NASH; HR 1.48, 95% CI 1.28-1.

73) Composite CVD events (HR 1.61, 95% CI 1.35-1.

47) Major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE; HR 1.69, 95% CI 1.43-2.

00) Notably, the findings persisted across ages and sexes -- the risk estimates, in fact, reaching highs in people with narcolepsy under 25 years of age, who, for example, had double the risks of hypertension (HR 2.01, 95% CI 1.6-2.

53) and diabetes (HR 2.37, 95% CI 1.66-3.

37), according to Rakesh Bhattacharjee, MD, of University of California San Diego School of Medicine, Rady Children's Hospital, and colleagues. "This underscores the need for careful cardiovascular assessment in children (<25 years), challenging previous assumptions that CVD risk is negligible in this age..

. Nicole Lou.