REM behavior disorder (RBD) can be one of the first symptoms of childhood narcolepsy.
More than one in three adult patients suffering from narcolepsy-cataplexy experience rapid eye movement (REM) behavior disorder (RBD), while RBD in childhood is extremely rare. We present the cases of two girls (aged 9 and 7 years old) with narcolepsy-cataplexy, in whom RBD was one of the first symptoms of the disease. The coincidence of RBD was seen by nocturnal video-polysomnography (v-PSG), and narcolepsy was diagnosed from short sleep latency and multiple sleep onset REMs (SOREMs) during a multiple sleep latency test (MSLT). Both girls were human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DQB1 *0602 positive, and their cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) hypocretin level (Hcrt-1) was extremely low.
Nevsimalova
Sona
S
Department of Neurology, 1st Medical Faculty, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. snevsi@lfl1.cuni.cz
Prihodova
Iva
I
Kemlink
David
D
Lin
Ling
L
Mignot
Emmanuel
E
D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009290:Narcolepsy / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D017286:Polysomnography; D020187:REM Sleep Behavior Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology