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.