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Nocturnal enuresis and the pontine reticular formation
J Kohyama1, S Kumada, M Shimohira
1Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan. jkohyama.ped@med.tmd.ac.jp
Objectives:
To assess the previously proposed hypothesis that enuretic patients have a dysfunction in the pontine reticular formation.
Methods:
In 18 patients with intractable nocturnal enuresis, rapid eye movement (REM)-related phasic chin muscle activity loss in REM sleep was examined by means of a single-night polysomnography.
Results:
In 5 of 18 patients, this physiologically seen phenomenon was found to be disturbed.
Conclusions:
Since REM-related phasic chin muscle activity loss is disturbed by the functional impairment in the pontine reticular formation, some enuretic patients could be considered as presenting a dysfunction in this structure.