Parkison

Pathological amyloid proteins have been implicated in neuro-degenerative diseases, specifically Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Lewy-body diseases and prion related diseases. In prion related diseases, functional tau proteins can be transformed into pathological agents by environmental factors, including oxidative stress, inflammation, Aβ-mediated toxicity and covalent modification. These pathological agents are stable under physiological conditions and are not easily degraded. This un-degradable characteristic of tau proteins enables their utilization as functional materials to capturing the carbon dioxides...

BACKGROUND: In Sub-Saharan countries, most patients with Parkinson's disease are underdiagnosed and untreated, with a marked shortage of qualified personnel. OBJECTIVES: To develop a tele-education Parkison's disease program for health providers in Douala (Cameroon). METHODS: Feasibility, satisfaction, pre-post course medical knowledge improvement and patients' access were analyzed. RESULTS: Twenty lectures over the course of a year which connected participants with movement disorder experts using live, synchronous video conferences, and teaching materials were given...

In the advanced Parkison's disease (PD) the late complications of levodopa therapy have to be considered: motor and/or non-motor fluctuations with or without disturbing dyskinesias. The non-motor fluctuations often influence the quality of life (QoL) in a much more negative way compared with the motor symptoms. In the treatment of advanced PD there are several device-aided methods - deep brain stimulation, apomorphine pump, levodopa/carbidopa intestinal gel (LCIG) - to improve the symptoms, the QoL, sometimes even in an individual, tailored custom form...

As a first step toward building a smart home behavioral monitoring system capable of classifying a wide variety of human behavior, a wireless sensor network (WSN) system is presented for RSSI localization. The low-cost, non-intrusive system uses a smart watch worn by the user to broadcast data to the WSN, where the strength of the radio signal is evaluated at each WSN node to localize the user. A method is presented that uses simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) for system calibration, providing automated fingerprinting associating the radio signal strength patterns to the user's location within the living space...

Dopamine is a potent neuromodulator in the brain that influences a variety of motivated behaviors and is involved in several neurologic diseases. We evaluated a bio-barcode amplification assay for its ability to detect dopamine in a mouse model with and without prior administration of the neurotoxin 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1, 2, 3, 6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP). Our approach uses a combination of DNA barcodes and bead-based immunoassays for detecting neurotransmitters with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)...

Parkinson's disease is among the most common neurological diseases. About 4.1 million people are attected worldwide. The course of Parkinson's disease is chronically progressive. With L-Dopa therapy the life expectancy of people being affected by Parkinon's disease is not shortened compared with people who are not affected. Therefore people with Parkinson's disease often suffer from the serious effects for decades which include motor symptoms as well as vegetative disturbance, which concerns bladder function and functions of the gastrointestinal tract...

During recent years, attention has been given to the potential of therapeutic approaches using stem cells obtained from dental pulp tissue. The aim of this study, therefore, was to give an overview of the papers produced during the last 10 years that have described the use of stem cells obtained from human deciduous teeth in cell therapy or bioengineering. The PubMed database was investigated from January 2002 until July 2011 and the papers published during this period were analyzed according to criteria previously established, using the methodology of systematic review...

Data on the sleep disorders in patients with Parkinson's disease are given. The basic point focuses on analysis of paradoxical sleep without muscle atonia. The author reports developed models of preclinical and clinical stages of Parkinson's disease in Wistar rats on the basis ofa moderate and deep attenuation in activity of ubiquitin-proteasome system, a key mechanism of aging and development of conformation disease. The hypothesis about changes in the characteristics of paradoxical sleep as a marker of parkinsonism stages is validated...

Inexpensive, high-throughput, low maintenance systems for precise temporal and spatial measurement of mouse home cage behavior (including movement, feeding, and drinking) are required to evaluate products from large scale pharmaceutical design and genetic lesion programs. These measurements are also required to interpret results from more focused behavioral assays. We describe the design and validation of a highly-scalable, reliable mouse home cage behavioral monitoring system modeled on a previously described, one-of-a-kind system...

There have been few reports on secondary parkisonism caused by chronic subdual hemorrhage (CSDH). In most reports, rigidity-bradykinesia syndrome resolved gradually after decompressive operation for CSDH. We report a 74-year-old male patient who suffered from CSDH status post burr hole drainage twice, and followed secondary parkinsonism thereafter. Decompression by burr hole drainage was successful. However, the conscious level was still altered and the patient began to present with rigidity and bradykinesia...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is associated with a reduction of health-related quality of life (HrQoL). Demographic and clinical determinants of HrQoL in PD have been previously investigated, but less is known about its social determinants. Data on HrQoL in Austrian patients with PD are not available. The objective of this cross-sectional survey was to evaluate HrQoL of Austrian patients with PD and to provide a comprehensive analysis of its social and clinical determinants. Outpatients (n = 100) with idiopathic PD were recruited in the Department of Neurology of the University Innsbruck...

Over the past several decades there has been considerable progress in our basic knowledge as to the mechanisms and factors regulating Mn toxicity. The disorder known as manganism is associated with the preferential accumulation of Mn in the globus pallidus of the basal ganglia which is generally considered to be the major and initial site of injury. Because the area of the CNS comprising the basal ganglia is very complex and dependent on the precise function and balance of several neurotransmitters, it is not surprising that symptoms of manganism often overlap with that of Parkinson's disease...

A previously healthy 60 years old female patient presented with bradykinesia, postural instability and increased rigidity of both upper and lower limbs for 2 years and was diagnosed as Parkinsonism for last years. Later on she developed features of autonomic dysfunction including postural hypotension, hyperhydrosis and urinary incontinence so was diagnosed as Shy-Drager Syndrome. She was treated with fludrocortisone and nefidipine for the management of postural hypotension. Patient developed aspiration pneumonia during oral feeding, despite of ICU management for the same cause patient died of respiratory arrest...

RATIONALE: Studies on emotional processing report that schizophrenic patients present a specific pattern of emotional responding that usually includes deficits in emotional expressiveness, increased feelings of unpleasant emotion but decreased feelings of pleasant emotion, and increased physiological reactivity. However, studies have rarely controlled the nature of antipsychotic medication. Yet, the influence of these drugs on emotional response is uncertain and could vary depending on their pharmacological profile...

Parkison's disease causes damage to the central nervous system resulting in bradykinesia, muscle rigidity, rest tremor and dysarthric speech. In clinical terms dysarthria denotes the dysfunction of articulation, phonation and respiration. It is brought about by the impairment of neural paths innervating the speech apparatus, thus causing a decreased ability to communicate. The study was conducted by the Center for Speech and Language Processing (CSLP), Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań and the Chair and Department of Phoniatrics and Audiology, the Medical University, Poznań within the interdisciplinary research project grant called "Speech and Language Virtual Therapist for Individuals with Parkinson's Disease"...

A 70-year old woman was admitted because of sleep maintenance insomnia with severe respiratory sounds during sleep. Polysomnography (PSG) revealed frequent respiratory events, particularly hypopneas, throughout the night associated with severe oxygen desaturation, and inspiratory stridor, which was shown to have a high-pitched frequency by acoustic sound analysis. She also presented fine finger tremor due to parkisonism, increased bilateral tendon responses, cerebellar ataxic gait, and dysautonomia. Therefore, we concluded that she suffered from multiple systemic atrophy (MSA)...

Mutations in the glucocerebrosidase (GBA) gene cause Gaucher disease (GD). The aim of this study was to characterise the GBA mutations and analyze genotype/phenotype relationships in 193 unrelated patients from the Spanish GD Registry. We have identified 98.7% of the mutated GBA alleles, finding 56 different GBA mutations and 66 genotypes causing GD in Spain: 47 previously described mutations and 9 novel mutations (4 missense R395C, R463H, W312R and V398I, 1 nonsense R359X, 4 frameshift c.708delC, c.1214-1215delGC, c...

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Many papers documented that Parkinson's disease (PD) patients treated with levodopa (L-dopa) shows elevated plasma homocysteine (Hcy) levels. Several lifestyle factors are able to influence plasma Hcy levels. We review the evidence that L-dopa therapy is related with an increase in plasma Hcy levels and that several behaviours could be able to cause changes in plasma Hcy concentrations. Therefore, there are reasons to suggest that a healthy lifestyle lowering Hcy may prevent this potential iatrogenic complication during L-dopa therapy...

The author reviews the studies on the preventing effects of natural antioxidants, such as vitamins E and C, flavonoids, and polyphenols on neurodegenerative diseases, especially summarizing the results on the protective effect of ginkgo biloba extract on neuron cells, preventing effects of green tea polyphenols on apoptosis of PC12 cells (Parkison's disease model), preventing effects of genestien on amyloid-beta-induced apoptosis of hippocampal neuronal cells (Alzhemer's disease model), and preventing effect of Crataegus flavonoids on ischemic-reperfusion damage to the brain of the Mongolian gerbil (stroke model) in the laboratory...