title: Prevalence, severity, and impact on quality of life of restless leg syndrome in patients with liver cirrhosis in India.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Restless leg syndrome (RLS) has recently been shown to be increased in patients with liver cirrhosis (LC). We prospectively studied the prevalence and severity of RLS, and the effect of its presence on the quality of life (QoL) in Indian patients with LC.
  
  
  METHODS
  Adult patients with stable LC (n = 121; 98 male; median age 47 [range 18-68] years; Child-Pugh class A/B/C 59/39/23), were prospectively enrolled along with a group of healthy, adult controls (n = 121; 84 male; median age 42 [19-70] years). Patients with recent (<4 weeks) worsening were excluded. The subjects underwent an initial screening for RLS, followed by a re-evaluation to confirm the diagnosis, using the International RLS Diagnostic Criteria, and assessment of its severity. All participants underwent QoL assessment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  RLS was commoner in LC patients (8/121; 6.6 %) than in controls (1/121; p < 0.05; odds ratio = 8.5 [1.1-69.0]). Presence of RLS showed no association with specific gender (male 7/98, female 1/23), Child-Pugh class (A 5/59, B 1/39 and C 2/23) or cause of liver disease (alcohol 3/32, hepatitis B 1/18, hepatitis C 3/28, and cryptogenic 1/25). RLS severity was moderate (5), severe (2), or very severe (1). Though QoL scores were lower in patients with LC than in controls, those in patients with and without RLS were similar.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  RLS was commoner in patients with LC than in controls, but did not correlate with liver disease severity and did not adversely influence QoL in LC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, 226 014, India. agoel.ag@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Amit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Goel
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, 226 014, India.
authors.forename: Shankar Lal
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Jat
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, 226 014, India.
authors.forename: Avani
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sasi
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, 226 014, India.
authors.forename: Vimal Kumar
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Paliwal
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, 226 014, India.
authors.forename: Rakesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Aggarwal
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000150:complications; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D012148:Restless Legs Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Chronic liver disease; Sleep disorders; Sleep-related movement disorders