Beginning

Author(s):  
Allan Hugh Cole

Through personal narrative, this chapter details the author’s experience of first becoming aware that something was not right with his body. This experience leads to visiting his primary care doctor who tells him that she is concerned about the possibility of his having Parkinson’s disease and then refers the author to a neurologist who is a movement disorder specialist. He is examined by this neurologist, who says, “What worries me is that I think you are in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease,” but who wants the author to have a brain scan that will confirm the clinical diagnosis given his young age and subtle symptoms. The author leaves his office, drives home, and informs his wife that this doctor thinks he have Parkinson’s disease. Here begins his new life as a person with Parkinson’s (PwP).

Author(s):  
Allan Hugh Cole

Through personal narrative, this chapter details the approximately ten days between the author’s diagnosis by Dr. T and getting results of the brain scan, called a DaTscan, which would confirm the clinical diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease (PD). During this time, his family and he traveled to New York City, where his wife was running the New York City Marathon. The author recounts his struggles with anxiety about the future, especially as concerns the burdens PD could place on his family and on his ability to continue working. The chapter concludes with a phone call from Dr. T, who confirms that the author does have Parkinson’s.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Jonathan R. Isaacson ◽  
Salima Brillman ◽  
Nisha Chhabria ◽  
Stuart H. Isaacson

Background: The diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is primarily clinical, but in cases of diagnostic uncertainty, evaluation of nigrostriatal dopaminergic degeneration (NSDD) by imaging of the dopamine transporter using DaTscan with single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) brain imaging may be helpful. Objective/Methods: In the current paper, we describe clinical scenarios for which DaTscan imaging was used in a prospective case series of 201 consecutive patients in whom a movement disorder specialist ordered DaTscan imaging to clarify NSDD. We describe the impact of DaTscan results on changing or confirming pre-DaTscan clinical diagnosis and on post-DaTscan treatment changes. Results/Conclusion: DaTscan imaging can be useful in several clinical scenarios to determine if NSDD is present. These include in patients with early subtle symptoms, suboptimal response to levodopa, prominent action tremor, drug-induced parkinsonism, and in patients with lower extremity or other less common parkinsonism clinical presentations. We also found DaTscan imaging to be useful to determine underlying NSDD in patients with PD diagnosis for 3-5 years but without apparent clinical progression or development of motor fluctuations. Overall, in 201 consecutive patients with clinically questionable NSDD, DaTscan was abnormal in 58.7% of patients, normal in 37.8%, and inconclusive in 3.5%. DaTscan imaging changed clinical diagnosis in 39.8% of patients and led to medication therapy changes in 70.1% of patients.


2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 621-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Martinez-Martin ◽  
C. Falup-Pecurariu ◽  
C. Rodriguez-Blazquez ◽  
M. Serrano-Dueñas ◽  
F.J. Carod Artal ◽  
...  

1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. E13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald F. Young ◽  
Anne Shumway-Cook ◽  
Sandra S. Vermeulen ◽  
Peter Grimm ◽  
John Blasko ◽  
...  

Fifty-five patients underwent radiosurgical placement of lesions either in the thalamus (27 patients) or globus pallidus (28 patients) for treatment of movement disorders. Patients were evaluated pre- and postoperatively by a team of observers skilled in the assessment of gait and movement disorders who were blinded to the procedure performed. They were not associated with the surgical team and concomitantly and blindly also assessed a group of 11 control patients with Parkinson's disease who did not undergo any surgical procedures. All stereotactic lesions were made with the Leksell gamma unit using the 4-mm secondary collimator helmet and a single isocenter with dose maximums from 120 to 160 Gy. Clinical follow-up evaluation indicated that 88% of patients who underwent thalamotomy became tremor free or nearly tremor free. Statistically significant improvements in performance were noted in the independent assessments of Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) scores in the patients undergoing thalamotomy. Eighty-five and seven-tenths percent of patients undergoing pallidotomy who had exhibited levodopa-induced dyskinesias had total or near-total relief of that symptom. Clinical assessment indicated improvement of bradykinesia and rigidity in 64.3% of patients who underwent pallidotomy. Independent blinded assessments did not reveal statistically significant improvements in Hoehn and Yahr scores or UPDRS scores. On the other hand, 64.7% of patients showed improvements in subscores of the UPDRS, including activities of daily living (58%), total contralateral score (58%), and contralateral motor scores (47%). Ipsilateral total UPDRS and ipsilateral motor scores were both improved in 59% of patients. One (1.8%) of 55 patients experienced a homonymous hemianopsia 9 months after pallidotomy due to an unexpectedly large lesion. No other complications of any kind were seen. Follow-up neuroimaging confirmed correct lesion location in all patients, with a mean maximum deviation from the planned target of 1 mm in the vertical axis. Measurements of lesions at regular interals on postoperative magnetic resonance images demonstrated considerable variability in lesion volumes. The safety and efficacy of functional lesions made with the gamma knife appear to be similar to those made with the assistance of electrophysiological guidance with open functional stereotactic procedures. Functional lesions may be made safely and accurately using gamma knife radiosurgical techniques. The efficacy is equivalent to that reported for open techniques that use radiofrequency lesioning methods with electrophysiological guidance. Complications are very infrequent with the radiosurgical method. The use of functional radiosurgical lesioning to treat movement disorders is particularly attractive in older patients and those with major systemic diseases or coagulopathies; its use in the general movement disorder population seems reasonable as well.


Author(s):  
Hector Riquelme-Heras

Background: Parkinson's disease was described for the first time by James Parkinson in 1817 in the trial "Shaking Palsy," and thus there is also evidence of this disease in the Indian medical system 4500 years ago, for the diagnosis and its management with Mucuna pruriens.Years later, it was subsequently determined to contain levodopa. Two types of manifestations of Parkinson's disease are currently known, such as motor and non-motor, the first being the one that usually leads to diagnosis. Success in this will depend on the skill of the primary care physician, the ability to recognize the first symptoms by the patient, and the health systems in the management of care for the timely referral. This work shows the comprehensive management of a patient who arrives at Primary Care services, presenting vague and specific symptoms. These symptoms were treated with medications or remedies in order to calm the condition temporarily. It is convenient to call the specific symptoms such as headache, nausea, pain, dizziness, tiredness and weakness, poor motivation, sadness, easy crying, and sleep disturbances; A large percentage go to their health centers for presenting motor alterations, many times identified by their relatives or by themselves and despite being recognized as something abnormal, many of them come when the tremor intervenes with the activities of daily life. At this point, the management of the disease would begin, making clear the importance of education for the population to attend abnormal situations on time and not in late stages, significantly improving the quality of life or the prognosis of the disease Parkinson's, as is the case that occurred in our institution; A 64-year-old female patient who presents with tremor in the fifth finger of the right hand, she mentions that it is more intense when there are apparently stress situations, hyposmia and sleep disturbances, going to different health centers where they were controlled the discomfort with essential medications, many of these not requiring a prescription, temporarily decreasing in intensity; This being the beginning of multi-causality for proper management from considering the first contact doctor as a resource manager with the use of diagnostic skills to recognize characteristic signs in early stages of the disease and the ability to maintain continuity with the patients and their families as a model of family system. Studies were determined that non-motor manifestations could appear months or years before they manifest as motor symptoms to give comprehensive management to patients from their first contact with the health centers closest to them. The diagnostic presumption and its referral to the neurology and timely treatment service, until evaluating the functionality and efficacy of health policies, avoiding the delay in pharmacological treatment and access to specific neuroimaging studies at any stage of the disease. Objective: The objective of this report is to present a clinical case of a patient diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, from its management in the first contact medical services to have comprehensive management by a neurologist, thus in this way the period of latency to start treatment. Methods: We present a clinical case of a 64-year-old patient who came to consultation due to a tremor in the fifth finger of the right hand.A review of her medical history is performed, and management by different specialties is identified, for mood disorders, insomnia, essential tremor in addition to allergic rhinitis, already with drug treatment with slight or no improvement. The patient underwent a neurological examination and imaging and laboratory studies. She was referred to the neurology service as soon as possible. Result: After the interrogation and physical examination, the patient was referred to the Neurology service to confirm the presumption of diagnosis as a movement disorder under study. This process is often called the "latency period" of the diagnosis. The present work is shown as a decisive factor in giving a verdict on this problem. It is known that this level of resolution takes into account the pillars of first contact medicine as health resource managers. In this way, pharmacological treatment was started with a decrease in tremor as a motor symptom and an increase in quality and amount of sleep, increased mood, and affect as non-motor symptoms. Conclusion: The patient is under established medical and pharmacological control, and the long diagnostic latency period could be evidenced, as it usually happens in many movement disorders or their early stages, in this case, Parkinson's disease. Likewise, the family doctor is an instrument that allows the resolution of more than 90% of health problems in general, and the proper management of the remaining percentage is multifactorial, as well as medical skill and experience, the capacity of the patient or the family members. in recognizing early-stage motor disorders and health systems that often make a referral to other medical specialties difficult.


2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 492
Author(s):  
Alexandra Silva ◽  
Tiago Pedro ◽  
Fradique Moreira

On the title of Appendix 1, where it reads:“Appendix 1: Validated European Portuguese version of the “Non-Motor Symptoms Questionnaire”It should read:“Appendix 1: Validated European Portuguese version of the “Non-Motor Symptoms Questionnaire. Copyright© [2021]International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society (MDS). All rights reserved. Provisional translation used with permissionof MDS.”Article published with errors: https://www.actamedicaportuguesa.com/revista/index.php/amp/article/view/13160


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document