RESEARCH - Rheumatologic serologies in secondary restless legs syndrome

[Guest guest]

Mov Disord. 2000 Mar;15(2):321-3. Links

Rheumatologic serologies in secondary restless legs syndrome.

Department of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.

Diagnostic criteria for restless legs syndrome (RLS) have been established;

however, the pathophysiology of this common condition remains elusive.

Several secondary forms of RLS potentially include renal failure, iron

deficiency, pregnancy, and neuropathy. RLS has also been reported in

approximately 25% of patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and

Sjogren's syndrome. We performed clinical and serologic evaluations on 68

patients diagnosed with RLS to determine how many may have concurrent

rheumatologic disease that could be causing their RLS symptoms. We compared

these with other postulated secondary causes of RLS. No patient had clinical

evidence of rheumatologic disease, and only four had any positive serologic

evaluations (two positive SSA/SSB and two mildly elevated RF titers). Three

of these had a positive family history for RLS. Patients without a family

history of RLS did have lower ferritin levels, more cases of neuropathy, and

an older age at symptom onset. We do not think rheumatologic disease

represents a significant secondary cause of RLS and do not recommend

serologic investigation unless there are overt clinical signs. In contrast,

our study suggests that neuropathy and serum iron deficiency do represent

secondary forms of RLS.

PMID: 10752585

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed & cmd=Retrieve & dopt=Abstra\

ctPlus & list_uids=10752585

Not an MD

I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org