Objective: To examine whether probable REM sleep behavior disorder (pRBD) was associated with increased risk of developing stroke in a community-based cohort.
Methods:The study included 12,003 participants (mean age 54.0 years) of the Kailuan Study, free of stroke, cancer, Parkinson disease, dementia, and head injury at baseline (2012). We determined pRBD using a validated REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) questionnaire in 2012. Incident stroke cases were confirmed by review of medical records. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of stroke according to pRBD status, adjusting for several sleep measures (i.e., insomnia, daytime sleepiness, sleep duration, snoring, and use of hypnotics) and other potential confounders.Results: During 3 years of follow-up, we documented 159 incident stroke cases. Relative to participants without pRBD at the baseline, those with pRBD had a 157% higher risk (95% CI 59%-313%) of developing stroke. Presence of pRBD was associated with increased risk of both stroke types-the adjusted HR was 1.93 (95% CI 1.07-3.46) for ischemic stroke and 6.61 (95% CI 2.27-19.27) for hemorrhagic stroke.Conclusions: Presence of pRBD was associated with a higher risk of developing stroke, including both ischemic and hemorrhagic types. Future studies with clinically confirmed RBD and a longer follow-up would be appropriate to further investigate this association. Neurology ® 2017;88:1849-1855 GLOSSARY AIS 5 Athens Insomnia Scale; BMI 5 body mass index; CI 5 confidence interval; ESS 5 Epworth Sleepiness Scale; HDL-C 5 high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; HR 5 hazard ratio; ICD-10 5 International Classification of Diseases-10; LDL-C 5 lowdensity lipoprotein cholesterol; OR 5 odds ratio; OSA 5 obstructive sleep apnea; PD 5 Parkinson disease; pRBD 5 probable REM sleep behavior disorder; RBD 5 REM sleep behavior disorder; RBDQ-HK 5 RBD questionnaire-Hong Kong; RMB 5 renminbi.REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is associated with synucleinopathies, and a large proportion of individuals with RBD may already have or later develop Parkinson disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies, or multiple system atrophy. [1][2][3] Synucleinopathies were often associated with symptoms of autonomic dysfunction, such as impaired blood pressure control and reduced heart rate variability. 4,5 Consistently, individuals with idiopathic RBD experienced worse autonomic function, including cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and urinary domains, relative to control participants. 6,7 The autonomic nervous system may have a role in the prepathologic state or contribute to the precipitating factors of the acute phase of stroke, such as atherosclerosis and sympathetic hyperactivity. 8 Some case reports suggested that stroke may cause RBD. 9-11 In a previous cross-sectional study, we also found that individuals with probable RBD (pRBD) had higher odds of several concurrent stroke risk factors, such as diabetes and hyperlipidemia. 12 However, whether RBD predicts subsequ...