Introduction: Freezing of gait, a common PD motor symptom, could increase the risk of falling. This study aimed to investigate the clinimetric attributes of the Freezing of Gait Questionnaire (FOGQ) for people with Parkinson disease in the “off” state. Methods: A total of 115 patients with Parkinson disease (PD; mean age, 60.25 years) were included. Acceptability, internal consistency (by the ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Progressive changes in the substantia nigra pars compacta and locus ceruleus of patients with Parkinson disease and Alzheimer disease visualized by neuromelanin MRI and cardiac postganglionic sympathetic nerve function on (123)I-metaiodobenzylguanidine scintigraphy have not been fully evaluated. We compared the diagnostic value of these modalities among patients with earl...

PURPOSE To evaluate the thickness of the 10 retinal layers in the paramacular area of Parkinson disease patients using a new segmentation technology of optical coherence tomography (OCT) to examine whether the thickness of specific layers predicts neurodegeneration or Parkinson disease severity. DESIGN Observational prospective study. METHODS Parkinson disease patients (n = 129) and age-mat...

Background. Previous surveys have shown that motor deficits precede the classical motor symptoms seen in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and that physical exercise may have beneficial effects on PD. Objectives. Here, we evaluated the potential of voluntary exercise to improve motor deficit in experimentally-induced Parkinson’s disease (6-OHDA) rats. Methods. Forty adult Wistar rats were ...

Background & Aims: This study aimed to translate Parkinson Disease Quality of Life (PDQL) Questionnaire into Persian and test its reliability and validity in Iranian patients with Parkinson disease. Method: In order to standardize the questionnaire, a standard "Forward-Backward" translation, cognitive debriefing and cultural adaptation procedure were applied and the English version of PDQL was ...

BACKGROUND Parkinson disease is a common neurodegenerative disease. The racial, sex, age, and geographic distributions of Parkinson disease in the US are unknown. METHODS We performed a serial cross-sectional study of US Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 and older from the years 1995, and 2000-2005. Using over 450,000 Parkinson disease cases per year, we calculated Parkinson disease prevalence a...

The term Parkinson disease defines a specific clinical condition characterized by a typical history and characteristic signs. This review examines the historical evolution of the concept of Parkinson disease and how the misunderstanding of Parkinson disease may be hindering clinical research trials. It is proposed that this syndrome be called Parkinson diseases or parkinsonism type 1 through in...

Parkinson disease associated with farming and exposure to agricultural chemicals has been reported in numerous studies; little is known about Parkinson disease risk factors for those living in urban areas. The authors investigated the relation between copper, lead, or manganese emissions and Parkinson disease incidence in the urban United States, studying 29 million Medicare beneficiaries in th...