Pareidolia in Parkinson’s Disease and Multiple System Atrophy

Pareidolia is a visual illusion of meaningful objects that arise from ambiguous forms embedded in visual scenes. Previous studies showed that pareidolias are frequently observed in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) as well as dementia with Lewy bodies. However, whether pareidolias are useful for differentiating PD from other neurodegenerative parkinsonism disorders including multiple system atrophy (MSA) is unclear. The noise pareidolia test (NPT) was performed in 40 and 48 patients with PD and MSA, respectively. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate sensitivity and specificity. Results of neuropsychological tests were also compared between patients with PD with and without pareidolias. Visual hallucinations were present in none of the subjects. Pareidolic response in the NPT was observed in 47.5% and 18.8% of patients with PD and MSA, respectively. The number of pareidolic responses in patients with PD was significantly larger compared with patients with MSA ( P = 0.001 ). ROC curve analyses showed the sensitivity and specificity at 33% and 98%, respectively. Among patients with PD, those with pareidolias demonstrated higher State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-state ( P = 0.044 ) and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-trait ( P = 0.044 ) than those without pareidolias. Pareidolias can be found in patients with PD without visual hallucinations, and the pareidolia test may be a highly specific test for differentiating PD from MSA. Thus, anxiety may be associated with pareidolias in patients with PD.

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Cell Ratio Differences in Peripheral Blood between Early- and Late-Onset Parkinson’s Disease: A Case-Control Study

BioMed Research International ◽

10.1155/2019/2072635 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2019 ◽

pp. 1-6

Author(s):

Sen Jiang ◽

Yuling Wang ◽

Hua Gao ◽

Qin Luo ◽

Dan Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Parkinson’S Disease ◽

Parkinson's Disease ◽

Roc Curve ◽

Late Onset ◽

Diagnostic Value ◽

Curve Analysis ◽

Onset Age ◽

Immune Disorders ◽

Roc Curve Analysis ◽

Cell Ratio

Objectives. To explore the differences of immune disorders in peripheral blood between patients with early-onset Parkinson’s disease (EOPD) and late-onset Parkinson’s disease (LOPD). Methods. We retrospectively reviewed medical records of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients and healthy controls between June 2002 and July 2017. At last, we included 117 PD patients who were divided into EOPD and LOPD according to whether onset age of PD was after 50 and 99 controls divided into E-Control (match for EOPD) and L-Control (match for LOPD) according to whether their age was after 53 which was onset age plus median of disease duration. We compared the ratios of cells between multiple groups and performed the multinominal logistic regression analysis to explore the relationship between ratios and subtypes of PD. We also carried out the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to estimate the diagnostic value of the variable. Results. Lymphocyte-red blood cell ratio (LRR) was lower in LOPD compared with that in EOPD or L-Control. LRR was also negatively associated with LOPD (OR: 0.623; 95% CI: 0.397–0.980; P=0.040). The ROC curve analysis showed the optimal cutoff value of 4.53 (×10−4) of LRR for discrimination of LOPD versus L-Control (sensitivity: 0.596, specificity: 0.764). The area under curve (AUC) was 0.721. As for LOPD versus EOPD, the optimal threshold of LRR was 4.10 (×10−4) (sensitivity: 0.516, specificity: 0.745). AUC was 0.641. Conclusions. Peripheral immune disorders might play an important part in the pathological progression of LOPD. Also, LRR has potential diagnostic value.

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Circulating Inflammatory miRNAs Associated with Parkinson’s Disease Pathophysiology

Biomolecules ◽

10.3390/biom10060945 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (6) ◽

pp. 945 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sara R. Oliveira ◽

Pedro A. Dionísio ◽

Leonor Correia Guedes ◽

Nilza Gonçalves ◽

Miguel Coelho ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Parkinson’S Disease ◽

Parkinson's Disease ◽

Roc Curve ◽

Operating Characteristic ◽

Disease Diagnosis ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Roc Curve Analysis ◽

Additional Group ◽

Lrrk2 Gene ◽

Non Coding Rnas

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide, being largely characterized by motor features. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs, whose deregulation has been associated with neurodegeneration in PD. In this study, miRNAs targeting cell death and/or inflammation pathways were selected and their expression compared in the serum of PD patients and healthy controls. We used two independent cohorts (discovery and validation) of 20 idiopathic PD patients (iPD) and 20 healthy controls each. We also analyzed an additional group of 45 patients with a mutation in the leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) gene (LRRK2-PD). miRNA expression was determined using Taqman qRT-PCR and their performance to discriminate between groups was assessed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. We found miR-146a, miR-335-3p, and miR-335-5p downregulated in iPD and LRRK2-PD patients versus controls in both cohorts. In addition, miR-155 was upregulated in LRRK2-PD compared to iPD patients showing an appropriate value of area under the ROC curve (AUC 0.80) to discriminate between the two groups. In conclusion, our study identified a panel of inflammatory related miRNAs differentially expressed between PD patients and healthy controls that highlight key pathophysiological processes and may contribute to improve disease diagnosis.

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Increased substantia nigra echogenicity correlated with visual hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease: a Chinese population-based study

Neurological Sciences ◽

10.1007/s10072-019-04110-z ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 41 (3) ◽

pp. 661-667 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ting Li ◽

Jing Shi ◽

Bin Qin ◽

Dongsheng Fan ◽

Na Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Parkinson’S Disease ◽

Parkinson's Disease ◽

Substantia Nigra ◽

Odds Ratio ◽

Rating Scales ◽

Binary Logistic Regression Analysis ◽

Motor Symptoms ◽

Visual Hallucinations ◽

Roc Curve Analysis ◽

Non Motor Symptoms

AbstractAs a noninvasive technique, transcranial sonography (TCS) of substantia nigra (SN) has gradually showed its effectiveness not only in diagnosis but also in understanding clinical features of Parkinson’s Disease (PD). This study aimed to further evaluate TCS for clinical diagnosis of PD, and to explore the association between sonographic manifestations and visual hallucinations (VH). A total of 226 subjects including 141 PD patients and 85 controls were recruited. All participants received TCS. A series of rating scales to evaluate motor and non-motor symptoms were performed in PD patients. Results showed that 172 subjects were successfully assessed by TCS. The area of SN was greater in PD patients than that in controls (P < 0.001). As receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed, the best cutoff value for the larger SN echogenicity size was 23.5 mm2 (sensitivity 70.3%, specificity 77.0%). Patients with VH had larger SN area (P = 0.019), as well as higher Non-Motor Symptoms Scale (NMSS) scores (P = 0.018). Moreover, binary logistic regression analysis indicated that SN hyperechogenicity (odds ratio = 4.227, P = 0.012) and NMSS scores (odds ratio = 0.027, P = 0.042) could be the independent predictors for VH. In conclusion, TCS can be used as an auxiliary diagnostic tool for Parkinson’s disease. Increased SN echogenicity is correlated with VH in Parkinson’s disease, possibly because the brain stem is involved in the mechanism in the onset of VH. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings.

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