L-dopa and carbidopa (sinemet) in the management of parkinsonism

L-dopa and carbidopa (sinemet) in the management of parkinsonism.

Parkinsonism is a degenerative disease. A weakening in the responsiveness to dopamine replacement therapy affects many patients: thus 45% fail to maintain their initial improvement after 2 years' and 50% after 3 years' medication. However, by reducing the peripheral and systemic side actions of dopamine through the selective introduction of sinemet, a decarboxylase inhibitor+ L-dopa combination...

The L-dopa response in vascular parkinsonism.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether a positive L-dopa response in vascular parkinsonism (VP) is correlated with the presence of nigrostriatal pathology due to either vascular damage or neuronal cell loss. METHODS Seventeen patients with pathologically confirmed VP were selected from the pathological collection of the Queen Square Brain Bank for Neurological Disorders, and their L-dopa response dur...

L-dopa in Parkinsonism and the influence of previous thalamotomy.

A double-blind cross-over trial over 24 weeks (10 weeks on the active remedy, 4 weeks off treatment, and 10 weeks on placebo) of the effect of L-dopa on idiopathic Parkinsonism (paralysis agitans) has shown no difference in the response obtained in patients who had undergone previous stereotaxic ventrolateral thalamotomy and in those who had not. Of the 34 patients (18 men and 16 women) in the ...

Controlled-release carbidopa-levodopa (Sinemet) in combination with standard Sinemet in advanced Parkinson's disease.

Twelve of 23 patients with Parkinson's disease and motor fluctuations who entered a double-blind study comparing controlled-release carbidopa/levodopa (Sinemet CR-4) with standard Sinemet (SS) continued into open label follow-up on a combination of CR-4 and SS (C/S); the rest continued on CR-4 alone. Significant improvement on C/S compared with CR-4 was noted for shorter duration and reduced di...

Reversal of the glabellar reflex in Parkinsonism by L-dopa.