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Presentations of Primary Hypersomnia in Chinese Children SLEEP Han, F., Lin, L., Li, J., Aran, A., Dong, S. X., Zhao, L., Li, M., Li, Q. Y., Yan, H., Wang, J. S., Gao, H. Y., Li, M., Gao, Z. C., Strohl, K. P., Mignot, E. 2011; 34 (5): 627-632A

Abstract

To retrospectively describe childhood presentations of primary hypersomnia with an emphasis on narcolepsy-cataplexy in a Chinese population.A total of 417 children (< 18 years old) successively presenting with complaints of hypersomnia without anatomic cause or sleep apnea risk were evaluated using the Stanford Sleep Inventory, human leukocyte antigen (HLA) DQB1*0602 typing, and MSLT recordings. CSF hypocretin-1 was measured in 47 cases to document hypocretin deficiency. A subgroup ("narcolepsy/hypocretin deficiency") with likely hypocretin deficiency (low hypocretin-1 or HLA positive with clear-cut cataplexy) was further examined for presentations prior to, around, or after puberty.Narcolepsy with (n = 361) or without (n = 17) cataplexy presented at an earlier age and with increased male predominance when compared to idiopathic hypersomnia (n = 39, P < 0.01). Nearly 70% of those with narcolepsy/hypocretin deficiency (n = 271) had disease onset before age 10 y, and 15% had onset before age 6, an unusually young age distribution. Onset was prior to puberty in 78% of cases. Clinical features were similar in presentations across puberty groups except for sleep paralysis, which increased in frequency with age/puberty. Mean sleep latency (MSL) decreased and the number of sleep onset REM periods (SOREMPs) increased with age/puberty, but MSLT diagnosis criteria (MSL = 8 min, = 2 SOREMPs) were similarly positive across groups. Familial clustering was present in only 1.7% of probands.In children presenting with a complaint of primary hypersomnia to a sleep clinic in China, 86% (361/417) meet criteria for narcolepsy with cataplexy. Puberty did not affect positivity on the MSLT as a diagnostic feature. Sleep paralysis was the only symptom that increased with increasing age. In addition, narcolepsy with cataplexy in our clinic population appeared to begin at a younger age than usually reported in other studies.

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View details for PubMedID 21532956

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC3079942