We identified 82 patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) ( n = 61) or with early relapsing-remitting MS ( n = 21) and assessed their VRF including arterial hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, diabetes mellitus and smoking.
The present study shows that 1) an increase of 1 EDSS point is associated with a decrease of 1.88 mL kg<sup>-1</sup> min<sup>-1</sup> when adjusted for time since diagnosis, gender, age and MS type, 2) cardiorespiratory fitness and walking speed was significantly related but only minimally affected by MS type, and 3) hypertension is associated with a lower cardiorespiratory fitness level.