Parkinson’s And Alzheimer Disease

Parkinson’s
Disease

    

• D Masterman, A DeSalles, RW Baloh, et al (Univ of
  California, Los Angeles)
  
  
  Motor,
  Cognitive, and Behavioral Performance Following
  Unilateral Ventroposterior Pallidotomy for
  Parksinson Disease.
  
  
  Arch Neurol 55:
  1201-1208, 1998.
   
  
   
  
  Radio frequency ventroposterior pallidotomy (VPP) is
  increasingly used to treat medically refractory
  motor symptoms of Parkinson disease.
  
   
  
  Thirty-two patients were studied. None had dementia. Three to six months after surgery, 83% of the
  patients had improved total Unified PD Rating Scale
  Score.
  
  
    
  
  VPP in patients with PD significantly improves motor
  performance and daily level of functioning. Cognition and behaviour in patients without
  dementia are not affected adversely.
  
  
     
  

Supranuclear Palsy Parkinson’s and
Alzheimer’s Disease

      

• P Santacruz, B UttI, I Litvan, et al (NIH, Bethesda,
  Md)
  
  
  Progressive
  Supranuclear Palsy: A Survey of the Disease Course.
  
  
  Neurology 50:
  1637-1647, 1998.
   
  
     
  
  The course of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP)
  and factors predicting survival time were studied in
  a large, clinically diagnosed series of patients.
  
  
     
  
  61.8% of the deceased group had been male. Men tend to have their disease diagnosed
  later and to have shorter survival times than women.
  The first symptoms to appear were motor and visual, followed
  by emotional and personality problems, cognitive
  impairment and sleep changes.
  
  
    
  
  The symptoms of PSP overlap with Parkinson’s and
  Alzheimer’s diseases, which impairs an accurate
  diagnosis during the early course of the disease.
  PSP remains a devastating disease because of its
  unstoppable course over a 5- to 7- year period.
  
  
        

Alzheimer’s
Disease

   

• C Kawas, S Resnick, A Morrison, et al (Johns Hopkins
  Univ, Baltimore, Md; National Institute of Aging/NIH,
  Baltimore, Md; Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and
  Public Health, Baltimore, Md)
  
  A PROSPECTIVE STUDY OF ESTROGEN REPLACEMENT THERAPY AND THE RISK OF DEVELOPING ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE: THE BALTIMORE LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF AGING. 
  
  
  
  
  Neurology
  48: 1517-1521, 1997.
  
  
    
  
  
  Estrogen Replacement Therapy usage appears to confer
  a protective effect regarding development of
  Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Estrogen seems to exercise a direct influence
  on brain structure and function.
  
  
     
  
  The study provides encouragement of the development
  of improved attempts to mitigate the risk of AD
  using new agents selective for tissue-specific
  oestrogen receptors.
  
  
      
  
  Twice as many women as men are afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), possibly because of the decline in estrogen levels after menopause.
  
      
  
  ERT (Estrogen Replacement Therapy) usage appears to confer a protective effect regarding development of AD. This study supports conclusions of other studies.
  
     
  
  Additional work is necessary to verify the above.