Objective: To compare the clinical features of RLS patients with asymmetric distribution of discomfort and symmetry distribution, and provide new ideas for the diagnosis and treatment of RLS.

Background: The RLS  patients could have symptoms in legs, arms, and other areas, and we need to differentiate them with other secondary disorders.

Method: A total of 179 patients with RLS in neurology department of Shanghai General Hospital from July 2014 to December 2016 were enrolled in the study. The patients’ basic information were collected by face-to-face assessment. According to the distribution of patients with discomfort, RLS patients  were divided into bilateral symmetry group, upper limb group and unilateral group, and unilateral group was divided into simple unilateral and bilateral asymmetric group, the use of international disturbed leg syndrome Severity scale, Pittsburgh sleep quality score, and various statistical methods to explore the characteristics of the disease associated with discomfort in patients with RLS.

Results: In the 179 RLS patients, 45 patients (36%) had unilateral discomfort and only 9 patients (5%) had upper extremity discomfort. There were 79 women (63.2%) in bilateral symmetrical RLS and 36 (80.0%) women in unilateral group (P <0.05). Bilateral symmetry group IRLSRS was 22.78 ± 6.52 points, PSQI score was 10.51 ± 4.97 points, while unilateral group scores were 25.89 ± 4.59 points and 13.00 ± 3.62 points (P <0.05). 18 patients (14.4%) in the bilateral symmetry group and 11 patients (24.4%) in the unilateral group with secondary RLS were associated with pregnancy. Compared with 1 patient (0.8%) in the bilateral symmetry group, unilateral group appeared in 4 cases (8.9%), there was a significant difference between the two groups (P <0.05).

Conclusion: Patients with unilateral or asymmetrical distribution have a greater proportion of women and higher IRLSSG and PSQI scores than those with bilateral symmetry. The proportion of secondary RLS patients with pregnancy is higher than those with bilateral symmetrical symptoms. These results suggest that discomfort occurs in unilateral limbs or patients with asymmetrically distributed RLS, who are worse off and may be associated with hormone levels. No differences in clinical characteristics between patients with bilateral upper extremity discomfort and bilateral symmetry were found in this study.

« Back to 2019 International Congress

MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/distribution-characteristics-of-limbs-discomfort-in-restless-legs-syndrome-2/