Parkinsonism & related disorders
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Parkinsonism Relat. Disord. · Jan 2016
Metabolite ratios in the posterior cingulate cortex do not track cognitive decline in Parkinson's disease in a clinical setting.
Parkinson's Disease (PD) is classified as a motor disorder, but most patients develop cognitive impairment, and eventual dementia (PDD). Predictive neurobiomarkers may be useful in the identification of those patients at imminent risk of PDD. Given the compromised cerebral integrity in PDD, we investigated whether brain metabolites track disease progression over time. ⋯ Unlike Alzheimer's disease, single voxel MR spectroscopy of the PCC failed to show any significant association with cognitive status at baseline or over time. This suggests that MRS of PCC is not a clinically useful biomarker for tracking or predicting cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease.
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Parkinsonism Relat. Disord. · Jan 2016
From sweet to sweat: Hedonic olfactory range is impaired in Parkinson's disease.
Olfactory dysfunction and neuropsychological symptoms like depression and anhedonia are common non-motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD). The assessment of both functional domains includes clinical examination, olfactory testing, and standardized questionnaires. While olfaction is readily assessed by functional tests, the distinction of anhedonia as a separate symptom from other depressive symptoms is challenging. Thus, a test focusing on the assessment of hedonic olfaction may be helpful in the assessment of neuropsychological symptoms in PD. ⋯ These findings suggest that reduced hedonic olfaction might be an additional neuropsychological feature, probably giving insights into changes in hedonic tone complementary to hyposmia and depression in PD.