Periodic leg movements and REM sleep without atonia in Parkinson's disease with camptocormia

Camptocormia (a flexion of the trunk that only appears when standing or walking) affects a minority of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). As it responds poorly to levodopa and is associated with reduced midbrain and pons volume, it may result from non‐dopaminergic, brainstem lesions. As several sleep abnormalities in PD also result from non‐dopaminergic brainstem lesions, we monitored sleep in 24 non‐demented PD patients with (n = 12) and without (n = 12) camptocormia and in 12 controls. Nearly half (42%) patients with camptocormia had abnormal periodic leg movement indices (>15/h), versus 17% patients without camptocormia and 8% of controls (p = 0.02). In addition, the percentage of enhanced muscle activity during REM sleep (measured on the chin and on the limb muscles) tended to be higher in patients with than without camptocormia (51 ± 39% vs. 20 ± 25%, p = 0.06). The other sleep and REM sleep characteristics (sleep and REM sleep onset latencies, sleep time and sleep stage percentages, REMs density, arousal, and apnea‐hypopnea indices) were not different between these two PD groups. Lesions causing this axial dystonia may spare the sleep systems but affect the control of movements during sleep. © 2009 Movement Disorder Society