Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo in Parkinson's disease.
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Aged↗
Biomedical subjects
Kapil D Sethi
Publications and source records attributed to Kapil D Sethi.
Midbrain infarct with parkinsonism.
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Aged↗
Movement Disorders Society Scientific Issues Committee report: SIC Task Force appraisal of clinical diagnostic criteria for Parkinsonian disorders.
As there are no biological markers for the antemortem diagnosis of degenerative parkinsonian disorders, diagnosis currently relies upon the presence and progression of clinical features and confirmation depends on neuropathology. Clinicopathologic studies have shown significant false-positive and false-negative rates for diagnosing these disorders, and misdiagnosis is especially common during the early stages of these diseases. It is important to establish a set of widely accepted diagnostic criteria for these disorders that may be applied and reproduced in a blinded fashion. This review summarizes the findings of the SIC Task Force for the study of diagnostic criteria for parkinsonian disorders in the areas of Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, progressive supranuclear palsy, multiple system atrophy, and corticobasal degeneration. In each of these areas, diagnosis continues to rest on clinical findings and the judicious use of ancillary studies.
Biomarkers↗
Tremor.
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Tremors can be encountered in a variety of disease states but the most common causes are Parkinson disease and essential tremor. This review was undertaken to highlight advances in the field during the last 12 months. RECENT FINDINGS: Kinetic tremor may be more prominent in essential tremor than postural tremor. Clinically Parkinson disease and essential tremor may be confused with each other but it may be possible to distinguish between these two nitrites using sophisticated electrophysiology. Monosymptomatic rest tremor has recently been shown to be associated with decreased fluorodopa uptake on the positron emission tomography scan suggesting its relationship to Parkinson disease. SUMMARY: Significant advances have been made in the understanding of the pathophysiology, genetics and therapy of tremor disorders during the last 12 months. This review will consider Parkinson disease, essential tremor and other tremors and highlight advances in the field.
Acetates↗
Benefits and risks of pharmacological treatments for essential tremor.
Essential tremor can cause significant functional disability in some patients. The arms are the most common body part affected and cause the most functional disability. The treatment of essential tremor includes medications, surgical options and other forms of therapy. Presently there is no cure for essential tremor nor are there any medications that can slow the progression of tremor. Treatment for essential tremor is recommended if the tremor causes functional disability. If the tremor is disabling only during periods of stress and anxiety, propranolol and benzodiazepines can be used during those periods when the tremor causes functional disability. The currently available medications can improve tremor in approximately 50% of the patients. If the tremor is disabling, treatment should be initiated with either primidone or propranolol. If either primidone or propranolol do not provide adequate control of the tremor, then the medications can be used in combination. If patients experience adverse effects with propranolol, occasionally other beta-adrenoceptor antagonists (such as atenolol or metoprolol) can be used. If primidone and propranolol do not provide adequate control of tremor, occasionally the use of benzodiazepines (such as clonazepam) can provide benefit. Other medications that may be helpful include gabapentin or topiramate. If a patient has disabling head or voice tremor, botulinum toxin injections into the muscles may provide relief from the tremor. Botulinum toxin in the hand muscles for hand tremor can result in bothersome hand weakness and is not widely used. There are other medications that have been tried in essential tremor and have questionable efficacy. These drugs include carbonic anhydrase inhibitors (e.g. methazolamide), phenobarbital, calcium channel antagonists (e.g. nimodipine), isoniazid, clonidine, clozapine and mirtazapine. If the patient still has disabling tremor after medication trials, surgical options are usually considered. Surgical options include thalamotomy and deep brain stimulation of the thalamus. These surgical options provide adequate tremor control in approximately 90% of the patients. Surgical morbidity and mortality for these procedures is low. Deep brain stimulation and thalamotomy have been shown to have comparable efficacy but fewer complications have been reported with deep brain stimulation. In patients undergoing bilateral procedures deep brain stimulation of the thalamus is the procedure of choice to avoid adverse effects seen with bilateral ablative procedures. The use of medication and/or surgery can provide adequate tremor control in the majority of the patients.
Adrenergic Agonists↗
Secondary nonresponsiveness to botulinum toxin type A in patients with oromandibular dystonia.
Intramuscular injection of botulinum toxin type A is the treatment of choice for most cases of oromandibular dystonia. We report on five patients with oromandibular dystonia that developed secondary nonresponsiveness to botulinum toxin type A following multiple injections over a 6-year period.
Adult↗
Orthostatic paroxysmal dystonia.
A 52-year-old man with a history of cerebrovascular disease presented with a 3-year history of paroxysmal hemidystonia precipitated by assuming an upright position after sitting or lying down. MRA showed occlusion of the contralateral internal carotid artery (ICA) and near-total occlusion of the ipsilateral ICA. Subtraction single proton emission computed tomography demonstrated decreased perfusion in the contralateral frontoparietal cortex during the typical dystonic spell. We have coined the term "orthostatic paroxysmal dystonia" for this phenomenon.
Carotid Artery, Internal↗
Dystonia in spinocerebellar ataxia type 6.
Spinocerebellar ataxias are heterogeneous disorders with overlapping clinical features. Spinocerebellar ataxia-6 is a dominantly inherited condition characterized by relatively pure ataxia with a paucity of other manifestations including extrapyramidal findings. We report on two patients with genetically proven SCA-6 who had dystonia. One patient presented initially with dystonia, which remained the most disabling problem. Dystonia may occur in SCA-6 and can be disabling.
Cerebellum↗
Clinical aspects of Parkinson disease.
Parkinson disease is a slowly progressive neurodegenerative disorder with a varied clinical picture and a variable rate of progression. Recently, there have been some studies conducted to assess the diagnostic accuracy and other clinical aspects of the disease. In the absence of a biomarker the clinical diagnosis is imprecise. This leads to a significant number of misdiagnoses, especially in early disease. Assessment of the clinical features suggests that an accuracy of 90% may be the highest that can be expected using current diagnostic criteria. In addition to bradykinesia, which is a core symptom, different types of tremors occur. Whereas the rest tremor is characteristic, action tremor, re-emergent tremor and orthostatic tremor may occur in Parkinson disease. Symptomatic treatments are quite effective in early disease but clinical course is complicated by the appearance of motor fluctuations and dyskinesias in more advanced disease. Non-motor complications, such as cognitive, psychiatric and autonomic problems, become bothersome and disabling in some patients.
Diagnosis, Differential↗