Vascular occlusions are common structural modifications made by many plant species in response to pathogen infection. However, the functional role(s) of occlusions in host plant disease resistance/susceptibility remains controversial. This study focuses on vascular occlusions that form in stem secondary xylem of grapevines (Vitis vinifera) infected with Pierce's disease (PD) and the impact of o...

BACKGROUND Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most frequent neurodegenerative disease worldwide. Clinical diagnosis can only be made when the vast majority of the dopaminergic cell population has died. However, the cause(s) for sporadic PD is/are yet unclear. Transcript changes have recently been described in PD patients' whole blood cells, but corresponding splicing patterns remained unkno...

    Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurological disorder and many PD patients experience some type of voice and speech disorders during the course of illness. In this study, the aim was to investigate the effect of Lee Silverman voice treatment (LSVT) on improving voice difficulties in patients with mild PD using voice handicap index (VHI).    Methods: This interventiona...

Introduction: Parkinson Disease (PD) is a degenerative and progressive disorder of the central nervous system. It results from degeneration of Substantia Nigra pars compacta (SNc) of the Basal Ganglia (BG). Gait disturbances in PD patients generally get worse over time. The underlying mechanism of gait disturbances in PD has not been elucidated yet. Methods: In this study, we tried to analyze ...

Oxidative stress has been recognized as a risk factor of Parkinson's disease (PD) development. We hypothesized that decreased function of the nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (NFE2L2)-antioxidant response element (ARE) pathway might predispose to Parkinsonism. A case-control study was performed between NFE2L2 Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) and PD in a cohort of 765 unrelated pa...

In Hong Kong, the average annual cost of haemodialysis (HD) per patient is more than double of that of peritoneal dialysis (PD). As the number of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) has surged, it has posed a great financial burden to the government and society. A PD-first policy has been implemented in Hong Kong for three decades based on its cost-effectiveness, and has achieved succe...

OBJECTIVE To describe the clinical features, treatment(s), and outcomes of 15 HIV-infected patients with idiopathic Parkinson disease (PD) and sustained virus suppression and immunologic reconstitution, from a reference cohort of 9847 persons living with HIV (PLH). METHODS This retrospective, single-center matched case-control 1:2 study included PLH-PD patients evaluated over a 12-year period...

Migraine is a neurovascular disorder that is characterized by unilateral, pulsatile headaches. Migraine due to its individual and social effects is known as a major cause of disability in the world. The main complication of this disease is chronification that is known as chronic migraine (CM). It seems that several factors contribute to migraine chronification such as age, female gender, obesit...