Byeong-Yeul Lee1, Elana Farace2, Xiaoyu Sun3, James R. Connor2, Qing X. Yang1,3
1Bioengineering, The Penn State University, Hershey, PA, USA; 2Neurosurgery, The Penn State University, Hershey, PA, USA; 3Radiology, The Penn State University, Hershey, PA, USA
Iron deficiency has been shown to be one of the contributing factors for Restless legs syndrome (RLS). Since tissue R2*(=1/T2*) is known to be more specifically associated with tissue iron content, we applied a voxel-based R2* mapping to detect iron deficiency in the basal ganglia (BG) in RLS. Our results showed that a significant decrease in R2* in the BG of RLS compared to control groups, supporting the hypothesis that iron deficiency in the subcortical structures (BG, RN) of RLS leads to the dysfunction in sensory-motor pathway. R2* mapping is proven to be a sensitive tool for clinical evaluation of RLS.