title: Transcranial ultrasound shows nigral hypoechogenicity in restless legs syndrome.
abstract: In patients with Parkinson's disease, hyperechogenicity of the substantia nigra using transcranial ultrasound has been related to increased tissue concentrations of iron. Recently, deficient iron transport mechanisms in substantia nigra neurons have been described in postmortem tissue of patients with restless legs syndrome (RLS). This study was performed to study substantia nigra echogenicity in RLS patients compared with normal control subjects and Parkinson's disease patients. RLS patients had significantly reduced midbrain areas of hyperechogenicity compared with control subjects, and even more markedly reduced hyperechogenicity compared with Parkinson's disease patients. These findings lend further support to nigral iron deficiency as a pathogenetic factor in RLS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Innsbruck Medical University, Austria.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schmidauer
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sojer
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Seppi
authors.forename: Heike
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Stockner
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Högl
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Biedermann
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brandauer
authors.forename: Cecilia M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Peralta
authors.forename: Gregor K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Wenning
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Poewe
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D012148:Restless Legs Syndrome / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013378:Substantia Nigra / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D017585:Ultrasonography, Doppler, Transcranial