The importance of formal serum iron studies in the assessment of restless legs syndrome

Abstract

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) has been associated with a variety of conditions, including uremia, pregnancy, neuropathy, malignancy, and anemia, although a common etiology has not been identified. In 1953, Norlander1 described several patients with iron deficiency and RLS who responded favorably to blood transfusion or therapy with iron. Ekbom2 later observed that roughly 25% of patients with RLS had iron deficiency. In 1993, O'Keeffe et al.3 identified iron deficiency with or without anemia in four of 13 patients with RLS, and subsequently found a lower mean serum ferritin level in patients with RLS compared with control subjects.4 Although they suggest a relation between iron status and RLS, these studies have reflected relatively small patient populations had have raised questions about the nature of iron abnormalities in RLS. Given these observations, we conducted a comparatively large …