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Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is associated with dream enactment behavior and confirmed by REM sleep without atonia on polysomnography. Idiopathic RBD can be an early clinical manifestation of synucleinopathies such as Parkinson disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies, and multiple system atrophy and may present years before onset of cognitive or motor symptoms. Because alpha-synuclein aggregates have been found in autonomic nerve fibers of the submandibular glands in PD patients, researchers investigated whether these aggregates also could be seen in patients with idiopathic RBD.
The researchers obtained transcutaneous core-needle biopsies of the submandibular gland via ultrasound in 21 patients with polysomnography…