Hypoechogenicity of the Substantia nigra in Restless-Legs-Syndrome: Does it depend on imaging quality?

Background: In recent years, studies applying transcranial sonography (TCS) of the brain parenchyma associated a hypoechogenicity of the substantia nigra (SN) with the occurrence of restless legs syndrome (RLS). A decreased echogenicity of the SN in 20 patients in comparison to a healthy control group was first described in 2005 (Schmidauer et al.). A larger study including 49 patients with RLS confirmed the results of an in average hypoechogenic SN in relation to age and gender matched control subjects. In order to replicate the data by Schmidauer and colleagues, we measured SN echogenicity in groups of patient…