Difference in functional connectivity between end-stage renal disease patients with and without restless legs...

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in functional connectivity between patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) with and without restless legs syndrome (RLS). In addition, the study aimed to identify any potential associations between RLS severity and functional connectivity.

We enrolled patients with ESRD who had been undergoing hemodialysis. Patients with and without RLS were separated into two groups. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and a graph theory approach, we determined the functional connectivity of patients with ESRD. The data were collected during a 300-s resting state evaluation performed in the dialysis room prior to dialysis.

Eighteen of 48 patients with ESRD were diagnosed with RLS, whereas 30 patients did not exhibit RLS symptoms. Notably, functional connectivity metrics differed significantly between patients with and without RLS. Specifically, patients with ESRD and RLS displayed higher values for mean clustering coefficient (0.474 vs. 0.352, p = 0.001), global efficiency (0.520 vs. 0.414, p = 0.001), strength (6.538 vs. 4.783, p = 0.001), and transitivity (0.714 vs. 0.521, p = 0.001), while values for diameter (5.451 vs. 7.338, p = 0.002), eccentricity (4.598 vs. 5.985, p = 0.004), and characteristic path length (2.520 vs. 3.271, p = 0.002) were lower in patients with ESRD and RLS compared to those without RLS. In addition, there were correlations between the RLS severity score and the assortative coefficient (r = 0.479, p = 0.044), the small-worldness index (r = -0.475, p = 0.046), and transitivity (r = 0.500, p = 0.034).

We demonstrated differences in functional connectivity between patients with ESRD with and without RLS, which may shed light on the pathophysiology of RLS. Notably, a number of functional connectivity metrics demonstrated strong associations with RLS severity. Our study also confirmed the applicability of fNIRS as a tool for investigating functional connectivity in patients with RLS.