Prevalence of restless legs syndrome in Haemodialysis patients

Objective: to observe the frequency and various risk factors associated with restless legs syndrome (rls) in haemodialysis (hd) patients and to evaluate various factors associated with rls. design of the study: cross-sectional study. place & duration: department of nephrology,dialysis unit,isra university hospital and hirani dialysis centre,hyderabad. duration from 15-5-2011 to 27-7-2012. methods: the criteria of the international restless study group used to diagnose rls,while john hopkins restless legs 4 points severity scale was used to assess severity of rls. all patients were reinterviewed and clinically examined by qualified neurologist. in this study 100 patients were included from two dialysis centre. the following data were collected: age,sex,duration of dialysis,cause of end stage renal failure,bun,creatinin,serum sodium,serum potassium,serum calcium,serum phosphates,hemoglobin,ferritin,albumin,and pth level. results: the clinical and biochemical data of 100 patients from 137 were available. rls was present in 32 patients (32%). mild 16 (50%),moderate 12 (37.5%) and severe r.l.s was present in 4 (12.5%) patients respectively. we found association with increasing duration of dialysis and high calcium. conclusion: the frequency of r.l.s in our dialysis patients is 32%. results showed rls is associated with increasing duration of dialysis and high calcium. more studies are required to see association of rls with other factors like female gender,diabetes,and low iron.