A Screening-Based Method for Identifying Patients with REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder in a Danish Community Setting

Isolated REM sleep behaviour disorder (iRBD) is a predictive marker of prodromal Lewy body disease. iRBD prevalence in the general population is around 1%, but it remains under-diagnosed, even though symptoms are alleviated by medication. We developed a population screening strategy and identified 16 iRBD patients by conducting telephone interviews and polysomnography examinations. We compared our population-screened cohort with sleep-center referred patients and found higher MoCA scores and lower MDS-UPDRS-III scores in our patients. In conclusion, screening can be used to identify iRBD patients in a cost-effective manner with the benefit of identifying patients at a very early disease stage.