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Currently, there is no single diagnostic test for RLS. The disorder is diagnosed clinically evaluating the patient’s history and symptoms. Despite a clear description of the clinical features, the disease is often misdiagnosed or not diagnosed sufficiently. In 1995, the International Study Group on Restless Legs Syndrome identified four basic criteria for diagnosing RLS: (1) a desire to move the limbs, often associated with paresthesias or dysesthesias, (2) symptoms that worsen or are present only during rest or partially or temporarily relieved by activity, (3) motor restlessness, and (4) nocturnal worsening of symptoms.

Although about 80 percent of people with RLS also have PLMD’s not necessary to have for a diagnosis of RLS. In severe cases, patients may experience dyskinesia (uncontrolled movements, often continuous) while awake, and some patients have symptoms in one or both arms, as well as your legs. Most people with RLS have sleep disturbances, largely because of the discomfort and milestones in the extremities. The result is a lot of sleep and excessive daytime fatigue. Despite these efforts to establish standard criteria, it is difficult to make a clinical diagnosis of RLS. Physicians must rely largely on the patient’s description of her symptoms and medical history information including past medical problems, family history, and current medications. You can ask patients about the frequency, duration and intensity of symptoms as well as his tendency to sleep patterns and daytime sleepiness, disturbed sleep or daytime functioning.

If the patient’s history suggests a diagnosis of RLS, you can perform tests to rule out other diseases and to support the diagnosis of RLS. It must have blood tests to exclude anemia, decreased iron storage, diabetes, and renal dysfunction. You can also recommend an electromyography and nerve conduction studies to measure the electrical activity in muscles and nerves and can be used Doppler ultrasonography to evaluate muscle activity in the legs.

These tests can document any collateral damage or disease in nerves and nerve roots (such as peripheral neuropathy and radiculopathy) or other movement disorders associated with the legs. The negative results of these tests can indicate that the diagnosis of RLS. In some cases, sleep studies are performed as polysomnography (a test that records brain waves, heart rate and breathing of the patient overnight) to identify the presence of PLMD.

The diagnosis is especially difficult with children because the physician relies heavily on the patient’s explanation of their symptoms and, given the nature of the symptoms of RLS, a child may have difficulty describing. It is sometimes incorrectly diagnosed the syndrome as “growing pains” or attention deficit disorder.

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