Parkinsonism & related disorders
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Parkinsonism Relat. Disord. · Mar 2018
Altered kinematics of arm swing in Parkinson's disease patients indicates declines in gait under dual-task conditions.
Declines in simultaneous performance of a cognitive and motor task are present in Parkinson's disease due to compromised basal ganglia function related to information processing. The aim of this project was to determine if biomechanical measures of arm swing could be used as a marker of gait function under dual-task conditions in Parkinson's disease patients. ⋯ The simultaneous performance of a cognitive and gait task resulted in decrements in arm swing while cognitive performance was maintained. Arm swing outcomes provide a sensitive measure of declines in gait function in Parkinson's disease under dual-task conditions. The quantification of arm swing is a feasible approach to identifying and evaluating gait related declines under dual-task conditions.
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Parkinsonism Relat. Disord. · Mar 2018
Abnormal pain perception in patients with Multiple System Atrophy.
Patients with Parkinson's disease or Multiple System Atrophy frequently experience painful sensations. The few studies investigating pain mechanisms in Multiple System Atrophy patients have reported contradictory results. In our study, we compared pain thresholds in Multiple System Atrophy and Parkinson's disease patients and healthy controls and evaluated the effect of l-DOPA on pain thresholds. ⋯ Multiple System Atrophy patients had an increase in pain perception compared to Parkinson's disease patients and healthy controls. The l-DOPA effect was similar for pain thresholds in Multiple System Atrophy and Parkinson's disease patients, but tended to worsen pain tolerance in Multiple System Atrophy.
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Parkinsonism Relat. Disord. · Feb 2018
Retraction Of PublicationWITHDRAWN: Clinical correlates of cerebral white matter abnormalities in patients with Parkinson's disease: Methodological issues.
This article has been withdrawn at the request of the author(s) and/or editor. The Publisher apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause. The full Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found at https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal.
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Parkinsonism Relat. Disord. · Feb 2018
Increased glutamate + glutamine levels in the thalamus of patients with essential tremor: A preliminary proton MR spectroscopic study.
The aim of this study was to investigate the thalamic biochemical profile in patients with essential tremor (ET), using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS), and to explore the correlations between clinical and biochemical data. ⋯ Our study shows that 1H-MRS can highlight in vivo metabolic abnormalities in the thalami of ET patients, supporting the evidence that the increase of thalamic glutamatergic transmission can play a role in developing of tremor in ET.
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Parkinsonism Relat. Disord. · Jan 2018
Grey matter volume loss is associated with specific clinical motor signs in Huntington's disease.
Motor disturbances are clinical hallmarks of Huntington's disease (HD) and involve chorea, dystonia, hypokinesia and visuomotor dysfunction. Investigating the association between specific motor signs and different regional volumes is important to understand the heterogeneity of HD. ⋯ In HD, chorea is mainly associated with subcortical volume loss, while eye movements are more related to cortical volume loss. Both subcortical and cortical degeneration has an impact on motor impairment in HD. This implies that there is a widespread contribution of different brain regions resulting in the clinical motor presentation seen in HD patients.