Thalamic glutamate/glutamine in restless legs syndrome: increased and related to disturbed sleep.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To evaluate possible abnormal increase in thalamic glutamate/glutamine levels for restless legs syndrome (RLS) indicating increased glutamatergic activity producing arousal that at night disrupts and shortens sleep.

Methods

(1)H MRS of the right thalamus was performed using a 1.5 T GE MRI scanner and the PROBE-P (PRESS) on 28 patients with RLS and 20 matched controls. The Glx signal (combination of mostly glutamate [Glu] and glutamine [Gln]) was assessed as a ratio to the total creatine (Cr). This study tested 2 primary hypotheses: 1) higher thalamic Glx/Cr for patients with RLS than controls; 2) thalamic Glx/Cr correlates with increased wake during the sleep period.

Results

The Glx/Cr was higher for patients with RLS than controls (mean ± SD 1.20 ± 0.73 vs

SUBMITTER: Allen RP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3716406 | biostudies-literature | 2013 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature