Medline ® Abstract for Reference 11
of 'Clinical features and diagnosis of restless legs syndrome/Willis-Ekbom disease and periodic limb movement disorder in adults'
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Neuropathology of primary restless leg syndrome: absence of specific tau- and alpha-synuclein pathology.
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Pittock SJ, Parrett T, Adler CH, Parisi JE, Dickson DW, Ahlskog JE
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Mov Disord. 2004 Jun;19(6):695-9.
The neuroanatomical substrate for restless legs syndrome (RLS) is unknown. We identified 4 patients with idiopathic RLS who came to post-mortem examination, where brain and spinal cord tissue were available for neuropathological assessment. Lewy bodies were not identified and alpha-synuclein immunohistochemistry was uniformly negative. Neurofibrillary tangle pathology was variable and nonspecific. These findings suggest that tau- or alpha-synuclein brain pathology is not a component of primary RLS. Although chronic ischemic changes were found in all 4 cases, these were probably incidental. The absence of diagnostic microscopic brain or spinal cord pathology suggests that the pathologic substrate may be neurochemical or receptor based.
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Department of Neurology Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA.
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