title: Motor events during REM sleep in patients with narcolepsy-cataplexy: a video-polysomnographic pilot study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We carried out a systematic video-polysomnographic analysis of the number and type of motor events during REM sleep in narcolepsy-cataplexy patients with REM sleep behavior disorder (NC + RBD) but not clinical RBD (NC-RBD).
  
  
  METHODS
  Twelve NC + RBD and 10 NC-RBD male patients underwent video-polysomnography (video-PSG). Motor events of different type and complexity (i.e., elementary and complex movements and vocalizations) occurring during REM sleep were visually assessed, and indices of their frequency per hour of REM sleep were calculated. Subsequently, the index values were compared in NC + RBD versus NC-RBD patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Typical RBD behaviors observed in five NC + RBD patients were not included in any type of motor events. No objective conventional sleep parameter, including visual analysis of chin electromyographic (EMG) activity, significantly differed between the two groups of NC patients. NC + RBD patients showed higher occurrence of elementary movements (p = 0.034) during REM sleep compared with NC-RBD patients, but the occurrence of complex movements did not differ significantly.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Video-analysis of motor events during REM sleep may improve the diagnosis of RBD in NC. RBD in NC patients is mainly characterized by elementary rather than complex movements, consistent with the view that RBD with NC patients displays a distinct phenotype with respect to other RBD patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. christian.franceschini@unibo.it
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Franceschini
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ferri
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pizza
authors.forename: Lara
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ricotta
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vandi
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Detto
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Poli
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pruneti
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mazzetti
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cipolli
authors.forename: Elio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lugaresi
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Plazzi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D009207:Myoclonus / Q000503:physiopathology; D009290:Narcolepsy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D017286:Polysomnography / Q000379:methods; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology*; D014741:Video Recording