BACKGROUND This article describes a specialist's perspective on the challenge of caring for patients with Parkinson disease in a changing American health care environment that places increasing responsibility on primary care physicians. METHODS Guidelines were developed by drawing from a combination of personal experience at a large university Parkinson disease clinic, literature review, pres...

OBJECTIVES To estimate the impact of a sensory-motor- cognitive task on postural balance, in Parkinson disease patients (Hoehn and Yahr 2-3) and to investigate possible relationships between posturography and functional balance clinical scales. METHOD Parkinson disease patients (n = 40) and healthy controls (n = 27) were evaluated with fluency tests, Berg Balance scale, Mini Best test and sta...

BACKGROUND Gaucher disease (GD) is an inborn error of metabolism caused by mutations in the gene (GBA) coding for glucocerebrosidase (GCase), inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern. GD patients have up to 9% risk of developing PD. CASE PRESENTATION We report two patients with GD that developed PD at different disease stages. CONCLUSION We reviewed the literature on the coexistence of P...

Problems of Parkinson`s Disease within the Arab world are discussed and a number of solutions are presented that will help in the management of Idiopathic Parkinson`s Disease. The problems discussed are problems related to the diagnosis whereby no individual clinical feature has sufficient sensitivity and specificity to serve as the sole basis for distinguishing Parkinson`s disease from other d...

BACKGROUND/AIM This study aimed to define the frequency of a primitive reflex, the buccopalpebral reflex (BPR), and its association with the clinical situation in patients with Parkinson disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS Between May 2010 and May 2011, 222 patients, 115 with Parkinson disease and 107 patients without any sign of neurodegenerative disease, were included in the study. All included ...

Several genetic variations have been associated with Parkinson disease in different populations over the past few years. Although a considerable number of worldwide populations have been screened for these variants, results from Sub-Saharan populations are very scarce in the literature. In the present report we have screened a cohort of Parkinson disease patients (n = 57) and healthy controls (...

alpha-Synuclein (SNCA) plays an important role in the regulation of dopaminergic neurotransmission and neurodegeneration in Parkinson disease. We investigated reward and punishment learning in asymptomatic carriers of a rare SNCA gene duplication who were healthy siblings of patients with Parkinson disease. Results revealed that healthy SNCA duplication carriers displayed impaired reward and in...

A 77-year-old woman who was diagnosed with Parkinson disease at 51 years of age presented with a 4-year history of intermittent jaw tremor. This was present at rest and declined in amplitude during voluntary movements. Tremor reappeared after the patient bit a tongue depressor continuously for 10 seconds (video on the Neurology® Web site at Neurology.org). “Re-emergent tremor” is a postural han...