Internally and externally guided saccades are normal in patients with idiopathic restless-legs-syndrome

The pathophysiology of idiopathic restless legs syndrome (RLS) is not yet understood and an involvement of dopaminergic pathways in the basal ganglia is discussed. Since in different disorders of the basal ganglia abnormalities of especially the internally guided saccades could be shown, we recorded saccadic eye movements under different stimulus conditions (CAP, OVERLAP, ANTI-CAP, ANTI-OVERLAP, and MEMORY) in 17 patients with a moderate to severe RLS and 12 age-matched controls to determine if there are irregularities in saccadic eye movements. Fifteen of the patients also had MRI examinations which were normal in all. Latency, gain, and percentage of unwanted saccades were calculated off-line. The saccades of our patients did not differ from those of controls. Since internally as well as externally guided saccades are normal in patients with moderate to severe RLS, an involvement of the oculomotor pathways from the cortex through the basal ganglia to the brainstem is unlikely.