REM Sleep Behavior Disorder and Its Possible Prodromes in General Population: Prevalence, Polysomnography Findings,
Woo-Jin Lee1, Shin-Hye Baek1, Hee-Jin Im1
1From the Department of Neurology (W.-J.L., C.-H.Y.), Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam; Department of Neurology (W.-J.L., C.-H.Y.), Seoul National University College of Medicine; Department of Neurology (S.-H.B.), Cheongju Saint Mary's Hospital; Department of Neurology (H.-J.I.), Hallym University Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital, Hwaseong; Institute of Human Genomic Study (S.-K.L., C.S.), College of Medicine, Korea University, Seoul; Department of Neurology (J.-E.Y.), Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Bucheon, South Korea; Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine (R.J.T.), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Li Chiu Kong Family Sleep Assessment Unit (Y.K.W.), Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, China; and Biomedical Research Center (C.S.), Korea University Ansan Hospital, South Korea.
Background And Objectives:
To evaluate the prevalence of REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) and its possible prodromal conditions, isolated dream enactment behavior (DEB) and isolated REM without atonia (RWA), in a general population sample, and the factors associated with diagnosis and symptom frequency.
Methods:
From a population-based prospective cohort in Korea, 1,075 participants (age 60.1 ± 7.0 years; range 50-80 years; men 53.7%) completed the RBD screening questionnaire (RBDSQ), a structured telephone interview for the presence and characteristics of repeated DEB, and home polysomnography (PSG). RWA was measured on submentalis EMG, including 30-second epoch-based tonic and phasic activity as well as 3-second mini-epoch-based phasic and any EMG activities. Based on the presence of repeated DEB and any EMG activity of ≥22.3%, we categorized the participants into no RBD, isolated RWA, isolated DEB, and RBD groups.
Results:
RBD was diagnosed in 20 participants, isolated RWA in 133 participants, and isolated DEB in 48 participants. Sex and DEB frequency-adjusted prevalence of RBD was 1.4% (95% CI 1.0%-1.8%), isolated RWA was 12.5% (95% CI 11.3%-13.6%), and isolated DEB was 3.4% (95% CI 2.7%-4.1%). Total RBDSQ score was higher in the RBD and isolated DEB groups than in the isolated RWA and no RBD group (median 5 [interquartile range (IQR) 4-6] for RBD, median 4 [IQR 3-6] for isolated DEB, median 2 [IQR 1-3] for isolated RWA, and median 2 [IQR 1-4] for no RBD groups, p < 0.001). RBDSQ score of ≥5 had good specificity but poor positive predictive value (PPV) for RBD (specificity 84.1% and PPV 7.7%) and its prodromal conditions (specificity 85.2% and PPV 29.1%). Among the RWA parameters, any EMG activity showed the best association with the RBD and its possible prodromes (area under the curve, 0.917). Three-second mini-epoch-based EMG activity and phasic EMG activity were correlated with the frequency of DEB (standardized Jonckheere-Terpstra statistic [std. J-T static] for trend = 0.488, p < 0.001, and std. J-T static = 3.265, p = 0.001, respectively).
Discussion:
This study provides prevalence estimates of RBD and its possible prodromal conditions based on a structured telephone interview and RWA measurement on PSG from the general population.
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