The Role of Anemia to Restless Legs Syndrome in Regular Hemodialysis Patients in Haji Adam Malik Medan General Hospital Rasyidah Hasan Harahap 1 , Riri Andri Muzasti 2* 1 Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara/Haji Adam Malik General Hospital, Medan, Indonesia 2 Division Nephrology and Hypertension, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara/Haji Adam Malik General Hospital, Medan, Indonesia Corresponding author: Riri Andri Muzasti, Division Nephrology and Hypertension, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara/Haji Adam Malik General Hospital, Medan, Indonesia Jl. Bunga Lau No.17, Medan, Indonesia, Phone/facsimile:+62-61-8365742. Keywords: anemia, restless legs syndrome, hemodialysis Abstract: Background: Restless Syndrome (RLS) has a higher prevalence in hemodialysis (HD) patients compared to the general population. Anemia as a cause of the high prevalence of RLS in HD is still unclear. Method: This is a cross-sectional study conducted in October 2017 evaluated 106 regular HD patients in Haji Adam Malik Medan General Hospital who had fulfilled inclusion and exclusion criteria. RLS diagnoses and severity was done in face to face interview according to the International Restless Legs Syndrome Study Group. Biochemical characteristics were measured. Bivariate and multivariate analysis was performed. Results: Of the 106 patients who took part in this study, RLS was found in 32 patients (30.2%). Hb levels in regular hemodialysis patients with RLS have a lower mean than patients without RLS. In the multivariate analysis using multinomial regression it was found that age and TIBC levels were associated with RLS and Hb as a protection factor for RLS OR 0.697 95% CI 0.496 ± 0.98. Conclusion: Anemia is one of the factors that influence the occurrence of RLS in addition to age being a matter that must be considered in the prevention and management of RLS in hemodialysis patients. 1 INTRODUCTION Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) is one of the most common sleep disorders in dialysis patients with a prevalence reaching 20% in patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) (Scherer JS, et al., 2017). Some literature shows an association between RLS and quality of life and mortality of patients with HD (what HD stand for?) (Neves, et al., 2017). Patients with HD who have RLS, have a higher mortality rate compared to patients without RLS (32.3% vs. 14.5%; p <0.04) with Hazard Ratio 1.39; 95% CI 1.08-1.79) (Scherer JS, et al., 2017). Decreasing HD prevalence of RLS in patients who have received kidney transplantation (4% vs. 11%; p <0.001) illustrates that kidney disease itself plays a role in the occurrence of RLS (Scherer JS, et al., 2017). It was already known that one of the complications of CKD is anemia (Suwitra, 2014). In dialysis patients, anemia is considered to be the main cause of RLS regardless of available iron reserves (Menezes, et al., 2018). However, several studies are not in line with this finding (Kim, et al., 2008). The pathophysiology of anemia with the occurrence of RLS in regular hemodialysis patients is still unclear. Therefore, we were interested in knowing the relationship of anemia with RLS in regular HD patients. This is important to be used as prevention and management of RLS in regular hemodialysis patients. The aim of the study….. Harahap, R. and Muzasti, R. The Role of Anemia to Restless Legs Syndrome in Regular Hemodialysis Patients in Haji Adam Malik Medan General Hospital. DOI: 10.5220/0009863702210226 In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease (ICTROMI 2019), pages 221-226 ISBN: 978-989-758-469-5 Copyright c  2020 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved 221