Periodic Limb Movements during Sleep and the Clinical-Morphological Signs of Cerebral Microangiopathy

Objectives. To establish the relationship between the extent of white matter lesions and the degree of reductions in cognitive functions with periodic limb movements (PLM) in patients with cerebral microangiopathy (CMA). Materials and methods. A total of 34 patients with established diagnoses of CMA (12 men, 22 women, mean age 66.9 years) were studied. The investigation protocol included nocturnal actigraphy and cardiorespiratory monitoring of nocturnal sleep, neuropsychological testing, and assessment of neuroimaging markers of CMA using brain MRI scan data. Depending on the PLM index, study (PLM index ≥15 episodes/h) and control (PLM index <15 episodes/h) groups were formed. Results and conclusions. Statistically signifi cant differences were found between the study and control groups in performance levels on neuropsychological tests involving regulatory functions (p = 0.0025 for the Frontal Assessment Battery, p = 0.036 for the Trail Making Test part B (TMT-B), p = 0.009 for the Digit Symbol Substitution Test), and in the volume of juxtacortical white matter lesions (p = 0.009). Positive correlations were found between the main features of PLM and the total volume and the volume of the periventricular hypertensive white matter and negative correlations with the results of neuropsychological tests, especially for regulatory functions. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.