Electrophysiological Findings in Kleine- Levine Syndrome in a Female

R ecurrent hypersomnia is a periodic sleep disorder which includes the Kleine-Levine Syndrome and its incomplete variants. The Kleine-Levin syndrome is characterized by recurrent episodes of hypersomnia associated with binge eating and hypersexuality. It usually occurs in adolescent males, but may occur in middle-age females. The episodes generally last from several days to several weeks and usually occur twice a year (1). No epidemiological study of the syndrome has been reported, therefore its true incidence is unknown. Although the pathogenesis of the syndrome remains unknown, a dysfunction at the hypothalamic level has been suggested (2). Incomplete forms of the recurrent hypersomnia present with reccurrent hypersomnia as the only symptom (3,4). According to The International Classification of Sleep Disorders this last group of patients are coded as "monosymptomatic type" (5). Little data exist from all night polysomnographic and multiple sleep latency testing on Kleine-Levine patients, particularly in females. In this report we describe nocturnal polysomnographic evaluation, multiple sleep latency test results, clinical EEG, brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and immunogenetic findings on a female patient who was diagnosed with recurrent hypersomnia (KleineLevine type). CASE REPORT