Open AccessReview of periodic limb movement and restless leg syndrome
Author(s) -
Radhika Natarajan
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of postgraduate medicine/journal of postgraduate medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.405
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 0972-2823
pISSN - 0022-3859
DOI - 10.4103/0022-3859.65284
Subject(s) - medicine , restless legs syndrome , polysomnography , obstructive sleep apnea , medline , epidemiology , sleep medicine , physical medicine and rehabilitation , physical therapy , clinical practice , intensive care medicine , pediatrics , apnea , sleep disorder , insomnia , psychiatry , pathology , law , political science
Periodic limb movement (PLM) and Restless leg syndrome (RLS) are types of sleep disorders that are not very well recognized in clinical practice. While RLS is a clinical diagnosis, the diagnosis of PLM is made by polysomnography. They share the same pathophysiology and often respond to the same treatment. To date all the epidemiological studies have reported the prevalence between 2% and 15%. It has recently become known that mild obstructive sleep apnea and upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS) can masquerade as PLM syndrome. New discoveries have been made with regard to genetics and PLM and RLS. Detailed review on this subject should improve the awareness of these disorders, both among general physicians and specialists. Extensive review of journals in the past 20 years was made using Medline search.