Sleep Med. 2007 Jun 12.
REM behavior disorder (RBD) can be one of the first symptoms of childhood narcolepsy.
Nevsimalova S, Prihodova I, Kemlink D, Lin L, Mignot E.
Department of Neurology, 1st Medical Faculty, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.

More than one in three adult patients suffering from narcolepsy-cataplexy experience rapid eye movement (REM) behavior disorder (RBD), while RBD in childhood is extremely rare. We present the cases of two girls (aged 9 and 7 years old) with narcolepsy-cataplexy, in whom RBD was one of the first symptoms of the disease. The coincidence of RBD was seen by nocturnal video-polysomnography (v-PSG), and narcolepsy was diagnosed from short sleep latency and multiple sleep onset REMs (SOREMs) during a multiple sleep latency test (MSLT). Both girls were human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DQB1 *0602 positive, and their cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) hypocretin level (Hcrt-1) was extremely low.

Categories: 2007, Sleep architecture, Sleep disturbances, Sleep onset rapid eye movement, Narcolepsy, Polysomnography, Multiple sleep latency test, Hypocretin