Visit-to-visit systolic blood pressure variability is associated with increased fatigue symptoms in multiple...

To evaluate the relationship between visit-to-visit systolic blood pressure variability (SBPv) and fatigue symptoms in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients.

This is a cross-sectional study using data for MS patients who completed the Fatigue Subscale in the Performance Scales (PS), a validated, self-reported measure of MS-related disability, between 2011 and 2015 at an academic medical center. Those who had at least 3 available SBP measures within the prior 12 months of the survey were included in the analysis. Ordinal logistic regression was used to model fatigue as a function of SBP variability, adjusting for demographic factors and mean SBP.

Data for 91 MS subjects were analyzed. We found that, compared to those with the lowest SBP variability (Tertile 1), subjects in Tertile 2 had 2.2 times higher odds (OR = 2.19; 95% CI, 0.82-5.87; p = 0.120) and those in Tertile 3 (highest variability) 4.2 times higher odds (OR = 4.16; 95% CI, 1.56-11.13; p = 0.005) of being in a higher fatigue level group, independent of age, sex, race/ethnicity, and mean SBP.

Our data show that MS patients with higher SBP variability had a greater degree of fatigue. Future research is needed to further explore this relationship and the potential for therapeutic opportunities to improve fatigue.