Transcranial ultrasound shows nigral hypoechogenicity in restless legs syndrome.
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.
Schmidauer
Christoph
C
Department of Neurology, Innsbruck Medical University, Austria.
Sojer
Martin
M
Seppi
Klaus
K
Stockner
Heike
H
Högl
Birgit
B
Biedermann
Birgit
B
Brandauer
Elisabeth
E
Peralta
Cecilia M
CM
Wenning
Gregor K
GK
Poewe
Werner
W
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