Cerebral blood flow alterations in hemodialysis patients with and without restless legs syndrome: an arterial spin labeling study

Hemodialysis with restless legs syndrome (HD-RLS) is associated with alterations in neuronal function, the blood-brain barrier and iron deposition, thus affecting cerebral metabolism and perfusion. This study utilized three-dimensional arterial spin labeling (ASL) to identify HD-RLS-related perfusion patterns and potential relationships with disease severity. Twenty-six HD-RLS patients, 30 hemodialysis patients without restless legs syndrome (HD-nRLS) and 30 age-, sex-, and education-matched healthy controls were included in this study. One-way analysis of covariance and post hoc analyses were used to assess differences in cerebral blood flow (CBF) values, demographics and clinical data among the three groups. Pearson’s correlation analysis was conducted between altered CBF values in the HD-RLS group and clinical data. Compared with HD-nRLS patients, HD-RLS patients showed increased CBF in the right primary motor cortex (false discovery rate [FDR]-corrected P