The relationship between restless legs syndrome (Willis ekbom disease) and serum hepcidin level

INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE: The relation between the Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) and the iron deficiency is a well known topic. However, the etiology of the disease has not been clearly determined. In this study the correlation between primer RLS and the serum hepcidin level is examined. MATERIAL AND METHOD: In our study, the average age of the primer RLS patients was 46,85±8,6 years (30F/10M) and control group's average was 44,83±9,8 years (26F/14M). In the scope of this research IRLSSG diagnostic criteria (revised in 2012) was taken as basis. In order to avoid the potential variables which might cause a secondary RLS, all the participants were asked to provide hemogram, CRP, ferritin, serum iron levels, thyroid function tests and the erythrocyte sedimentation analysis. The hepcidin levels were measured with Human Hepcidin (Hepc 25) ELISA kit (Mybiosource, San Diego, USA). The sleep quality of the participants and also the existence of depression were measured and evaluated via standardized questionnaires. SPSS 21.0 software package was used for the statistical evaluation. FINDINGS: The statistically significant results of our analysis shows that the red blood cell (RBC) count, the neutrophil count, percentage of lymphocytes and more distinctively hepcidin levels and the percentage of neutrophil were higher in RLS patients in comparison with the control group. In the analysis of hepcidin in primer RLS patients based on ROC curve, the following values were determined: sensitivity %87,5; specificity %55; positive prediction %66; negative prediction %81,5. The area under the curve is calculated as 0.712. Depending on Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), significant evaluation results show that the ratio of poor sleep quality in RLS patients is higher in comparison with the control group (p ˂ 0,05). The statistically significant depression scores based on Beck Depression Scale (BDS) were determined high in RLS patients in comparison with the control group (p˂0,05). CONCLUSION: The results of our study reveal that the serum hepcidin level is higher in RLS patients in comparison with healthy control group. Our findings show that measurement of serum hepcidin levels might be used for diagnostic test of RLS. However, further and comprehensive investigations are needed for validation of this outcome. In compliance with the existing literature, the higher depression scores and poorer sleep quality in RLS patients can be considered as other crucial findings of our study. Keywords: Restless legs syndrome, serum hepcidin, iron.