title: Periodic leg movements during sleep in narcoleptic patients with or without restless legs syndrome.
abstract: We compared periodic and non-periodic leg movements during sleep and polysomnography in patients with narcolepsy with cataplexy (NC) with or without restless legs syndrome (RLS) with matched idiopathic RLS (iRLS) and control subjects. We enrolled 100 patients with NC: 17 having RLS were compared with 34 sex- and age-matched patients without RLS and with 17 normal controls and 17 iRLS subjects. Periodic leg movements were highest in iRLS and lowest in controls, with those in NC with RLS very close to iRLS, but higher than those in NC without RLS. The periodicity indexes showed the highest value in iRLS followed by NC with or without RLS and, finally, by controls. The inter-leg movement intervals peaked between 10 and 50 s in NC with RLS and in iRLS, the former did not display the nocturnal gradual decrease of periodic leg movements typical of iRLS. Periodic leg movements during sleep and polysomnography displayed specific features in RLS and NC, respectively, with NC with RLS showing an intermediate pattern. Even if RLS is only detected by targeted interview in NC, its frequency and impact on night-time sleep architecture and continuity suggest that this condition should be routinely searched for in NC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. giuseppe.plazzi@unibo.it
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Plazzi
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ferri
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Franceschini
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vandi
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Detto
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pizza
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Poli
authors.forename: Valérie C
authors.initials: VC
authors.lastname: De Cock
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bayard
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dauvilliers
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009290:Narcolepsy / Q000150:complications*; D020189:Nocturnal Myoclonus Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D017286:Polysomnography; D012148:Restless Legs Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D055815:Young Adult