To assess the spectrum of movement disorders, we reviewed video recordings and charts of 57 patients with Glut-1 deficiency. Eighty-nine percent of patients with Glut-1 deficiency syndrome had a disturbance of gait. The most frequent gait abnormalities were ataxic-spastic and ataxic. Action limb dystonia was observed in 86% of cases ...

Autonomic dysfunction has been frequently demonstrated in patients with extrapyramidal diseases by cardiovascular autonomic testing. In addition to classical testing, we applied the more detailed baroreflex and spectral analysis on three traditional cardiovascular tests in this study to get additional information on autonomic outflow. We recorded continuously blood pressure, electrocardiogram, ...

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is probably underused because of fears concerning the body image of patients. For the purposes of providing exact information for patients when choosing between PD and hemodialysis, we studied the extent of increase in waist circumference by infusing dialysate. The abdominal circumference of 44 PD patients was ...

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether the presence of probable REM sleep behaviour disorder (pRBD) influences the long-term outcome of Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients undergoing Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation (STN-DBS). BACKGROUND: RBD is a parasomnia characterized by loss of muscular atonia and complex motor behaviours during REM sleep, frequently reported in ...

PURPOSE: To compare pupillary autonomic dysfunction in multiple system atrophy (MSA) and Parkinson's disease (PD). METHODS: We administered eye-drop tests to 40 MSA patients, 40 PD patients with similar disease duration, and 20 age-matched healthy controls. Pupillary supersensitivity to a parasympathomimetic agent (0.05% pilocarpine hydrochloride) and to a sympathomimetic agent ...

There is growing interest in developing inexpensive and objective motor fluctuation evaluation methods for Parkinson's disease (PD). We aim to compare activity level in the off state, on state, and dyskinetic periods as evaluated either by a physician during a levodopa challenge or by a 72-hr on-off diary self-evaluation in ...

Electroencephalogram (EEG) reactivity to eyes opening and 12-Hz photic stimulation was investigated in 14 healthy elderly subjects, 21 parkinsonian patients (PD), 7 demented parkinsonian patients (PDD), and 10 patients with Lewy body dementia (LBD) using global field synchronization (GFS). During eyes closed Theta GFS was increased in Parkinson's disease and ...

Despite its relatively high prevalence Parkinson's Disease (PD) is still misdiagnosed in approximately 25% of cases. In this study our aim was to evaluate patients with Clinically Unclear Parkinsonian Syndromes (CUPS) submitted to brain SPECT imaging using the technetium-99m labeled Dopamine Transporter (DAT) tracer TRODAT-1. We recruited 15 subjects with ...

Periodontal inflammation has been implicated in atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease (CHD). Coronary angiography (CA) is used in the assessment of CHD; only a few studies have evaluated periodontal disease (PD) and angiographic measures of coronary atherosclerosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between CHD and ...

INTRODUCTION: The presence of asymmetry in symptoms and clinical signs favours the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD). The aim of this study is to analyse this symptom asymmetry as a function of different variables and compare it with other parkinsonisms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 201 Patients with PD were studied. The ...

PET provides a noninvasive means to evaluate the functional integrity of the presynaptic monoaminergic system in the living human brain. METHODS: In this study, a novel (18)F-labeled tetrabenazine derivative, (18)F-(+)fluoropropyldihydrotetrabenazine ((18)F-AV-133), was used for the noninvasive assessment of the vesicular monoamine transporters type 2 (VMAT2) in 17 Parkinson disease (PD) ...

Freezing of gait (FOG) is a common and disabling feature of Parkinson's disease (PD). Detailed pathophysiological studies are hampered by the fact that FOG episodes are difficult to elicit in a gait laboratory. We evaluated whether the need to avoid sudden obstacles on a treadmill can provoke FOG. We included ...

The purpose of this study is to compare the neuropsychological profile of patients affected by parkinsonism and vascular lesions to that in patients with PD alone (PD) and to evaluate whether the brain vascular lesion load is associated with neuropsychological variables. Thirty-six nondemented patients with parkinsonism were divided into 3 ...

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate patients with "clinically established" psychogenic parkinsonism (PsyP) using single-photon emission computer tomography (SPECT) with the technetium-99m labeled tracer TRODAT-1, a dopamine transporter (DAT) ligand, and investigate whether these patients have an underlying degenerative parkinsonism. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Five patients with PsyP were assessed using demographic data, standard ...

Although hiccups may be a non-motor symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD), they have attracted little research attention to date. To investigate the frequency of occurrence of hiccups in PD. The presence of hiccups was evaluated using face-to-face interviews in 90 PD patients and 100 age-matched controls. Eighteen (20%) of the ...

Penile vascular abnormalities occur in a high proportion of patients with Peyronie's disease (PD). Penile duplex ultrasonography (PDU) and dynamic infusion cavernosometry and cavernosography (DICC) are tools that can be used to help tailor individualized treatment for patients undergoing surgical intervention for their PD. However, precisely which parameters can be ...

PET studies in parkin-linked parkinsonism have generally been performed to assess striatal dopaminergic dysfunction and very little is known about the involvement of other monoaminergic structures in these patients. Measurements of (18)F-dopa uptake into serotonergic and noradrenergic structures provide an indication of the functional integrity of these nerve terminals. We ...

To investigate the accuracy of composite scores in classifying RA patients who are in remission using the absence of inflammatory activity detected by ultrasound (US) as a gold standard. Ninety-seven RA patients who were classified by their rheumatologists as being in remission were studied. Disease activity was assessed by the ...

BACKGROUND: Homocysteine (Hcy) exerts multiple neurotoxic mechanisms that have been linked to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders. Several studies observed elevated plasma Hcy levels in Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients treated with L-dopa, compared to healthy controls and to patients with other neurodegenerative disorders. OBJECTIVE: We performed an overview of published ...

The aim of this paper is to analyze the results of correlation of clinical symptoms and their characteristics with the results of neurophysiologic, neuropsycologic investigations and short genetic analyses in patients with Idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD). MATERIAL AND METHODS: The paper is a prospective and retrospective study of 15 IPD ...

Objectives. Abnormalities of posture represent one of the main features of Parkinson's disease (PD). Among them, camptocormia has been considered as rare in PD. We investigated frequency and clinical features of camptocormia in PD patients. Methods. 153 PD patients (mean 68.5 ± 10.7 years old, duration 5.9 ± 2.4 years) ...

To describe functioning and disability of patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD) according to the model endorsed by the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF). Adult PD patients were consecutively enrolled. The ICF checklist and the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule II (WHO-DAS II) were administered in individual sessions. Hoehn ...

Hyperhomocysteinemia has been associated with cognitive dysfunction and dementia. The incidence of dementia in Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients is higher than in the general population and plasma Homocysteine concentrations are increased in L-dopa treated PD patients. We evaluated the possible correlations between L-Dopa related hyperhomocysteinemia and cognitive dysfunction in PD. ...

Autonomic symptomatology is prevalent in Parkinson's disease (PD) and impacts quality of life, yet little data exist on the presentation of autonomic dysregulation. This study measures orthostasis, constipation, and anosmia in 58 PD patients and 51 age-matched controls enrolled in the University of Florida's Movement Disorders Center. Patients had their ...

Most cardinal motor signs in Parkinson's disease (PD) are more pronounced on one side than on the other. Unusually, one type of cardinal motor sign is found on one side while other motor signs are more pronounced on the contralateral side, the so-called dissociation of motor signs. The aims of ...

Apathy is a frequent feature of Parkinson's disease (PD), usually related with executive dysfunction. However, in a subgroup of PD patients apathy may represent the only or predominant neuropsychiatric feature. To understand the mechanisms underlying apathy in PD, we investigated emotional processing in PD patients with and without apathy and ...

Half of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) develop dementia. We studied topographic distribution of cerebral hypometabolism in PD with different types of MCI. This study included 61 nondemented PD patients and 14 age-matched controls. PD patients were grouped into normal cognition (PD-NC, n = 20), single ...

The accuracy of the clinical diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD) is still limited. Especially in the early stages, when cardinal symptoms are not conclusive, diagnosis can be delayed as structural neuroimaging methods such as CCT or MRI do not provide characteristic features that allow the diagnosis of this chronic neurodegenerative ...

The presence of Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites (LN) has been demonstrated in the enteric nervous system (ENS) of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. The aims of the present research were to use routine colonoscopy biopsies (1) to analyze, in depth, enteric pathology throughout the colonic submucosal plexus (SMP), and (2) ...

Olfactory involvement is well recognized in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). The purpose of this study was to examine smell function quantitatively, using different types and concentrations of odorants in PD patients. We aimed to elucidate whether a specific odor can affect the severity and duration of PD patients. A ...

Parkinson's disease (PD) involves a progressive depletion of dopamine in the basal ganglia leading to motor alterations. Oral communication impairment occurs in 75% to 90% of patients and has been poorly studied. to asses laryngeal electromyography (LEMG) patterns and correlate them to vocal analysis in patients with Parkinson's disease. This ...

Tremor in Parkinson's disease (PD) is a fundamental feature used in the determination of disease onset and progression. Traditionally, tremor has been evaluated using frequency domain analysis. However, in many cases, this analysis did not show significant differences comparing healthy elders and individuals with PD. Given its complex nature, recently ...

In the advanced stage of Parkinson's disease (PD), motor fluctuation is a frequent and a disabling problem. Despite its importance, motor fluctuation has received little scientific analysis probably due to limitation in objective assessment. Here, we focused on gait disorders to estimate motor fluctuation in daily activities. Using a new ...

Differentiating between Parkinson disease (PD) and idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (INPH) can be challenging for the practicing clinician. Patients with undiagnosed PD but with incidental ventriculomegaly run the risk of being subjected to unnecessary shunt surgery. Taking a family history of PD and establishing the presence of motor symptoms (tremor, ...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder. The diagnosis of PD is challenging and currently none of the biochemical tests have proven to help in diagnosis. Serum metallomic analysis may suggest the possibility of diagnosis of PD. The metallomic analysis was targeted on 31 elements obtained from 42 ...

In this paper, we examine the potential of electromyographic (EMG) and acceleration measurements in discriminating patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) from healthy persons. Two types of muscle contractions are examined: static contractions of biceps brachii muscles and elbow extension movements. Twelve features are extracted from static and ten features from ...

Essential tremor (ET) is the most common adult movement disorder. Especially in early stages the clinical differentiation between essential and Parkinsonian tremor may be a diagnostic challenge. Recent studies have consistently found hyperechogenic alterations in the area of the substantia nigra (SN) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) using transcranial ...

In 18 healthy age- and sex- matched controls and 13 patients with Wilsons disease (18-50 years) under continuous copper chelating therapy sinusoidal forearm movements of a given target rates (target rates: 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 Hz) as well as breathing movements were recorded by means of a goniometer and ...

BACKGROUND: There is an ongoing debate whether essential tremor (ET) represents a monosymptomatic disorder or other neurologic symptoms are compatible with the diagnosis of ET. Many patients with clinically definite ET develop dystonia. It remains unknown whether tremor associated with dystonia represent a subtype of ET. We hypothesized that ET ...

Objectives: To establish the frequency of auto-antibodies anti-HSP 70 using ELISA and Western Blot (WB) methods and to compare the results of each method among patients with the Ménière's Disease (MD) and internal ear diseases (IED) who do not fulfill criteria for MD. Sensibility, specificity and predictive values of anti-HSP70 ...

In this study, we examined the level of Golgi protein 73 (GP73) in the serum of 9 patients as a function of anti-liver cancer treatment. Although the numbers are small, a clear trend was observed. Patients who remained tumor free (up to 6 years post-treatment) showed reductions in GP73 at ...

Alexithymia, a reduction in the tendency to think about emotions, together with a difficulty in identifying and describing feelings, has been characterized as a personality trait, but may be secondary to other pathological conditions. The authors aimed at investigating alexithymia in Parkinson's disease (PD). Seventy PD patients and 70 control ...

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and chronically treated with L-DOPA exhibit, in a percentage of 10-30%, supra-physiological levels of plasma total homocysteinemia (tHcy). In this study, we have investigated, in a group of hyper-homocysteinemic PD patients, the time of hyper-tHcy recurrence after discontinuation of 1-month folate supplementation given to normalize ...

PURPOSE: To assess the impact of subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) on the sweating function in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). METHODS: Nineteen patients with idiopathic PD (mean age+/-SD, 61.58+/-9.47) were examined immediately before and 6 months after DBS. Each examination session included registration of autonomic symptoms ...

Recent evidence suggests that trace amines such as tyramine and octopamine, alternative products of tyrosine metabolism (an aminoacid parent of dopamine and noradrenaline), play a role in the homeostasis of the extrapyramidal system. However, the relevance of these trace amines in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease is still largely unknown. ...

In this prospective study of 34 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), measurements of the short duration levodopa motor response have been performed every 3 years in defined off states. The mean time from initiation of levodopa treatment was 14.8 years, and 17 patients survived to the latest assessment stage. Off ...

Hyperuricemia and gout can be seen in patients with Paget's disease of bone (PD). This may be secondary to increased nucleic acid turnover in accelerated bone remodeling. It is unclear whether all PD patients should be evaluated for the presence of PD and gout in the same patient. In this ...

Hyposmia is a common nonmotor feature of Parkinson's disease (PD) and has been variably detected in monogenic Parkinsonisms. To assess olfactory dysfunction in PINK1-related Parkinsonism, we evaluated olfactory detection threshold, odor discrimination, and odor identification in five groups of subjects: sporadic PD (n = 19), PINK1 homozygous (n = 7), ...

Dopaminergic deficiency may affect Parkinson's disease patients (PD) in the central as well as the peripheral tissues. In the retina, the neuromodulatory role of the dopaminergic Interplexiform cell layer (IP) plays a major role in the retinal light adaptation and may account for the duration of the negative afterimage. Here ...

Religion is central to the lives of billions of people worldwide. To probe processing dynamics of religious cognition and its potential brain correlates, we used a novel priming procedure to assess the integrity of religious and control semantic networks in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and controls. Priming for control, ...