Cerebral correlates of muscle tone fluctuations in restless legs syndrome: A pilot study with combined functional magnetic resonance imaging and anterior tibial muscle electromyography

Spiegelhalder, Kai; Feige, Bernd; Paul, Dominik; Riemann, Dieter; van Elst, Ludger Tebartz; Seifritz, Erich; Hennig, Jürgen; Hornyak, Magdolna (2008). Cerebral correlates of muscle tone fluctuations in restless legs syndrome: A pilot study with combined functional magnetic resonance imaging and anterior tibial muscle electromyography. Sleep medicine, 9(2), pp. 177-183. Amsterdam: Elsevier 10.1016/j.sleep.2007.03.021

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BACKGROUND: The pathology of restless legs syndrome (RLS) is still not understood. To investigate the pathomechanism of the disorder further we recorded a surface electromyogram (EMG) of the anterior tibial muscle during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in patients with idiopathic RLS. METHODS: Seven subjects with moderate to severe RLS were investigated in the present pilot study. Patients were lying supine in the scanner for over 50min and were instructed not to move voluntarily. Sensory leg discomfort (SLD) was evaluated on a 10-point Likert scale. For brain image analysis, an algorithm for the calculation of tonic EMG values was developed. RESULTS: We found a negative correlation of tonic EMG and SLD (p <0.01). This finding provides evidence for the clinical experience that RLS-related subjective leg discomfort increases during muscle relaxation at rest. In the fMRI analysis, the tonic EMG was associated with activation in motor and somatosensory pathways and also in some regions that are not primarily related to motor or somatosensory functions. CONCLUSIONS: By using a newly developed algorithm for the investigation of muscle tone-related changes in cerebral activity, we identified structures that are potentially involved in RLS pathology. Our method, with some modification, may also be suitable for the investigation of phasic muscle activity that occurs during periodic leg movements.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy > Management

UniBE Contributor:

Seifritz, Erich

ISSN:

1389-9457

ISBN:

17638594

Publisher:

Elsevier

Language:

English

Submitter:

Factscience Import

Date Deposited:

04 Oct 2013 14:55

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:17

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.sleep.2007.03.021

PubMed ID:

17638594

Web of Science ID:

000254807000010

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/23310 (FactScience: 41252)

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