Prehension patterns in restless legs syndrome patients

The pathogenesis of restless legs syndrome (RLS) is poorly understood. Prev iously we have shown that a reach-to-grasp task can be used to differentiat e Parkinson's disease (PD) patients from healthy age-matched control subjec ts. The aim of this study was to determine if performance on this task coul d be used to differentiate between patients with RLS, PD patients, and heal thy control subjects. Results indicated that RLS and control participants p roduced movement patterns that were nearly identical to one another, while movement patterns produced by the PD patients were significantly different from the other two groups. These results suggest RLS patients do not show a ny abnormalities in the performance of upper extremity prehension movements . Thus, these movements can be used to effectively differentiate between pa tients with Parkinson's Disease and Restless Legs Syndrome. While RLS patie nts respond favorably to dopaminergic therapies, this study suggests that P D and RLS may not share the same basal ganglia pathophysiology. (C) 2001 El sevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.