Cardiovascular perturbations involved in periodic leg movements during sleep

The nocturnal periodic leg movements (PLM) disease is not well known, especially in its relationship with cardiovascular (CV) rhythms. To address this question, the authors processed a standard polysomnographic recording in a typical patient, using the LARY-C software. A time-frequency analysis, using the smoothed pseudo Wigner-Ville transform was done to follow the autonomic nervous system (ANS) behavior through the short time variations of heart rate (HR) and arterial blood pressure (ABP) accompanying a PLM. The synchronous language SIGNAL, well suited for studying relationships between rhythms, was used to automatically produce a set of cardiovascular parameters related to a PLM. Important CV changes were quantified. The study of delays between CV and motor perturbations reveals new possible insights on PLM physiopathology.