Late-stage Parkinson's Disease is dominated by the loss of autonomy due to motor and
non-motor symptoms which can be marginally corrected by medication adjustments.
However, controversy exists on the mechanisms underlying the decrease in benefit from
L-dopa. So researchers assessed the response to L-dopa in late-stage Parkinson's Disease.
People with late stage Parkinson's Disease and people who had
undergone Deep Brain Stimulation underwent an acute L-dopa
challenge test. Those people with late stage Parkinson's Disease
improved by only 11%, whereas those people who had
undergone Deep Brain Stimulation improved by 37%. Rest
tremor showed the largest improvement. However, the
magnitude of the response to L-dopa was significantly
correlated with the severity of dyskinesias in people with late
stage Parkinson's Disease. As the Parkinson's Disease
symptoms improved, even though the improvement was mild,
the dyskinesia worsened. A decrease in L-dopa response is
therefore an indicator of the progression of Parkinson's Disease.
Reference : Parkinsonism and Related Disorders [2016] 26 : 10-16 (M.Fabbri, M.Coelho,
D.Abreu, L.C.Guedes, M.M.Rosa, N.Costa, A.Antonini, J.J.Ferreira)
Complete abstract : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26972527
http://www.viartis.net/parkinsons.disease/news/170321.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment