Wilson's disease (WD) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by ATP7B mutations. Subjects with only one mutation may show clinical signs and individuals with biallelic changes may remain ...asymptomatic. We aimed to achieve a conclusive genetic diagnosis for 34 patients clinically diagnosed of WD. Genetic analysis comprised from analysis of exons to WES (whole exome sequencing), including promoter, introns, UTRs (untranslated regions), besides of study of large deletions/duplications by MLPA (multiplex ligation‐dependent probe amplification). Biallelic ATP7B mutations were identified in 30 patients, so that four patients were analyzed using WES. Two affected siblings resulted to be compound heterozygous for mutations in CCDC115, which is involved in a form of congenital disorder of glycosylation. In sum, the majority of patients with a WD phenotype carry ATP7B mutations. However, if genetic diagnosis is not achieved, additional genes should be considered because other disorders may mimic WD.
: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a clinically heterogeneous disorder in which the symptoms and prognosis can be very different among patients. We propose a new simple classification to identify key ...symptoms and staging in PD.
: Sixteen movement disorders specialists from Spain participated in this project. The classification was consensually approved after a discussion and review process from June to October 2021. The TNM classification and the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) were considered as models in the design.
: The classification was named MNCD and included 4 major axes: (1) motor symptoms; (2) non-motor symptoms; (3) cognition; (4) dependency for activities of daily living (ADL). Motor axis included 4 sub-axes: (1) motor fluctuations; (2) dyskinesia; (3) axial symptoms; (4) tremor. Four other sub-axes were included in the non-motor axis: (1) neuropsychiatric symptoms; (2) autonomic dysfunction; (3) sleep disturbances and fatigue; (4) pain and sensory disorders. According to the MNCD, 5 stages were considered, from stage 1 (no disabling motor or non-motor symptoms with normal cognition and independency for ADL) to 5 (dementia and dependency for basic ADL).
: A new simple classification of PD is proposed. The MNCD classification includes 4 major axes and 5 stages to identify key symptoms and monitor the evolution of the disease in patients with PD. It is necessary to apply this proof of concept in a properly designed study.
Visual hallucinations (VH) and subjective cognitive complaints (SCC) are associated with cognitive impairment (CI) in Parkinson's disease. Our aims were to determine the association between VH and ...SCC and the risk of CI development in a cohort of patients with Parkinson's disease and normal cognition (PD-NC).
Patients with PD-NC (total score of >80 on the Parkinson's Disease Cognitive Rating Scale PD-CRS) recruited from the Spanish COPPADIS cohort from January 2016 to November 2017 were followed up after 2 years. Subjects with a score of ≥1 on domain 5 and item 13 of the Non-Motor Symptoms Scale at baseline (V0) were considered as "with SCC" and "with VH," respectively. CI at the 2-year follow-up (plus or minus 1 month) (V2) was defined as a PD-CRS total score of <81.
At V0 (
=376, 58.2% males, age 61.14±8.73 years mean±SD), the frequencies of VH and SCC were 13.6% and 62.2%, respectively. VH were more frequent in patients with SCC than in those without: 18.8% (44/234) vs 4.9% (7/142),
<0.0001. At V2, 15.2% (57/376) of the patients had developed CI. VH presenting at V0 was associated with a higher risk of CI at V2 (odds ratio OR=2.68, 95% confidence interval=1.05-6.83,
=0.0.039) after controlling for the effects of age, disease duration, education, medication, motor and nonmotor status, mood, and PD-CRS total score at V0. Although SCC were not associated with CI at V2, presenting both VH and SCC at V0 increased the probability of having CI at V2 (OR=3.71, 95% confidence interval=1.36-10.17,
=0.011).
VH were associated with the development of SCC and CI at the 2-year follow-up in patients with PD-NC.
Diplopia is relatively common in Parkinson's disease (PD) but is still understudied. Our aim was to analyze the frequency of diplopia in PD patients from a multicenter Spanish cohort, to compare the ...frequency with a control group, and to identify factors associated with it.
PD patients who were recruited from January 2016 to November 2017 (baseline visit; V0) and evaluated again at a 2-year ± 30 days follow-up (V2) from 35 centers of Spain from the COPPADIS cohort were included in this longitudinal prospective study. The patients and controls were classified as "with diplopia" or "without diplopia" according to item 15 of the Non-Motor Symptoms Scale (NMSS) at V0, V1 (1-year ± 15 days), and V2 for the patients and at V0 and V2 for the controls.
The frequency of diplopia in the PD patients was 13.6% (94/691) at V0 (1.9% in controls 4/206;
< 0.0001), 14.2% (86/604) at V1, and 17.1% (86/502) at V2 (0.8% in controls 1/124;
< 0.0001), with a period prevalence of 24.9% (120/481). Visual hallucinations at any visit from V0 to V2 (OR = 2.264; 95%CI, 1.269-4.039;
= 0.006), a higher score on the NMSS at V0 (OR = 1.009; 95%CI, 1.012-1.024;
= 0.015), and a greater increase from V0 to V2 on the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale-III (OR = 1.039; 95%CI, 1.023-1.083;
< 0.0001) and Neuropsychiatric Inventory (OR = 1.028; 95%CI, 1.001-1.057;
= 0.049) scores were independent factors associated with diplopia (R
= 0.25; Hosmer and Lemeshow test,
= 0.716).
Diplopia represents a frequent symptom in PD patients and is associated with motor and non-motor severity.
Motor phenotype (MP) can be associated with a different prognosis in Parkinson's disease (PD), but it is not fixed and can change over time.
Our aim was to analyze how the MP changed over time and to ...identify factors associated with the changes in PD patients from a multicenter Spanish PD cohort.
PD patients who were recruited from January-2016 to November-2017 (baseline visit; V0) and evaluated again at a 2-year±30 days follow-up (V2) from 35 centers of Spain from the COPPADIS cohort, were included in this study.MP was calculated at both visits based on Jankovic classification in TD (tremor dominant), IND (indeterminate), or PIGD (postural instability and gait difficulty). Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected, including serum biomarkers.
Five hundred eleven patients (62.57±8.59 years old; 59.2%males) were included in the study. At V0, MP was: 47.4%(242/511) TD; 36.6%(187/511) PIGD; 16%(82/511) IND. Up to 38%(194/511) of the patients changed their phenotype from V0 to V2, being the most frequent from TD to IND (8.4%) and from TD to PIGD (6.7%). A worse cognitive status (OR = 0.966) and less autonomy for activities of daily living (OR = 0.937) at V0 and a greater increase in the globalNMS burden (OR = 1.011) from V0 to V2 were associated with changing from TD to another phenotype after 2-year follow-up.
The MP in PD can change over time. With disease progression, the percentage of cases with non-tremoric MP increases. PD patients who changed from TD to postural instability and gait difficulty increased NMS burden significantly.
The aim of this study was to compare the progression of independence in activities of daily living (ADL) in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients versus a control group, as well as to identify predictors ...of disability progression and functional dependency (FD).
PD patients and control subjects, who were recruited from 35 centers of Spain from the COPPADIS cohort between January 2016 and November 2017 (V0), were included. Patients and subjects were then evaluated again at the 2-year follow-up (V2). Disability was assessed with the Schwab & England Activities of Daily Living Scale (S&E-ADLS) at V0 and V2. FD was defined as an S&E-ADLS score less than 80%.
In the PD group, a significant decrease in the S&E-ADLS score from V0 to V2 (N = 507; from 88.58 ± 10.19 to 84.26 ± 13.38;
< 0.0001; Cohen's effect size = -0.519) was observed but not in controls (N = 124; from 98.87 ± 6.52 to 99.52 ± 2.15;
= 0.238). When only patients considered functional independent at baseline were included, 55 out of 463 (11.9%) converted to functional dependent at V2. To be a female (OR = 2.908;
= 0.009), have longer disease duration (OR = 1.152;
= 0.002), have a non-tremoric motor phenotype at baseline (OR = 3.574;
= 0.004), have a higher score at baseline in FOGQ (OR = 1.244;
< 0.0001) and BDI-II (OR = 1.080;
= 0.008), have a lower score at baseline in PD-CRS (OR = 0.963;
= 0.008), and have a greater increase in the score from V0 to V2 in UPDRS-IV (OR = 1.168;
= 0.0.29), FOGQ (OR = 1.348;
< 0.0001) and VAFS-Mental (OR = 1.177;
= 0.013) (adjusted R-squared 0.52; Hosmer and Lemeshow test = 0.94) were all found to be independent predictors of FD at V2.
In conclusion, autonomy for ADL worsens in PD patients compared to controls. Cognitive impairment, gait problems, fatigue, depressive symptoms, more advanced disease, and a non-tremor phenotype are independent predictors of FD in the short-term.
Identifying modifiable risk factors for cognitive impairment in the early stages of Parkinson's disease (PD) and estimating their impact on cognitive status may help prevent dementia (PDD) and the ...design of cognitive trials.
Using a standard approach for the assessment of global cognition in PD and controlling for the effects of age, education and disease duration, we explored the associations between cognitive status, comorbidities, metabolic variables and lifestyle variables in 533 PD participants from the COPPADIS study.
Among the overall sample, 21% of participants were classified as PD-MCI (n = 114) and 4% as PDD (n = 26). The prevalence of hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia was significantly higher in cognitively impaired patients while no between-group differences were found for smoking, alcohol intake or use of supplementary vitamins. Better cognitive scores were significantly associated with regular physical exercise (p < 0.05) and cognitive stimulation (< 0.01). Cognitive performance was negatively associated with interleukin 2 (Il2) (p < 0.05), Il6 (p < 0.05), iron (p < 0.05), and homocysteine (p < 0.005) levels, and positively associated with vitamin B12 levels (p < 0.005).
We extend previous findings regarding the positive and negative influence of various comorbidities and lifestyle factors on cognitive status in early PD patients, and reinforce the need to identify and treat potentially modifiable variables with the intention of exploring the possible improvement of the global cognitive status of patients with PD.
The left dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) is thought to play a dominant role in the selection of movements made by either hand. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation to study the functional ...connectivity of the left PMd and right primary motor cortex (M1) during an acoustic choice reaction time (RT) task involving contraction of the thumb and forefinger. The facilitatory and inhibitory pathways that can be demonstrated between left PMd and right M1 at rest were suppressed during most of the reaction period. However, they were activated briefly at the start of the reaction period, depending on whether the cue indicated that the forthcoming movement had to be made with the left or the right hand. The facilitatory pathway was active at 75 ms in those trials in which the subjects were required to move the left hand, whereas the inhibitory pathway was active at 100 ms in trials in which the subjects had to move the right hand. These changes in excitability did not occur in hand muscles not used in the task. There were no significant changes in the excitability of intracortical circuits short intracortical inhibition (SICI) and intracortical facilitation (ICF) in the right M1. Interhemispheric interactions between the right PMd and left M1 were mainly inhibitory at rest and showed the same temporal profile of interhemispheric inhibition as for left PMd-right M1, although no evidence was found for facilitatory interactions. The results illustrate the importance of PMd not only in facilitating cued movements but also in suppressing movements that have been prepared but are not used.
Background and purpose
The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship between motor complications and non‐motor symptom (NMS) burden in a population of patients with Parkinson’s disease ...(PD) and also in a subgroup of patients with early PD.
Methods
Patients with PD from the COPPADIS cohort were included in this cross‐sectional study. NMS burden was defined according to the Non‐Motor Symptoms Scale (NMSS) total score. Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) part IV was used to establish motor complication types and their severity. Patients with ≤5 years of symptoms from onset were included as patients with early PD.
Results
Of 690 patients with PD (62.6 ± 8.9 years old, 60.1% males), 33.9% and 18.1% presented motor fluctuations and dyskinesia, respectively. The NMS total score was higher in patients with motor fluctuations (59.2 ± 43.1 vs. 38.3 ± 33.1; P < 0.0001) and dyskinesia (63.5 ± 40.7 vs. 41.4 ± 36.3; P < 0.0001). In a multiple linear regression model and after adjustment for age, sex, disease duration, Hoehn & Yahr stage, UPDRS‐III score and levodopa equivalent daily dose, UPDRS‐IV score was significantly related to a higher NMSS total score (β = 0.27; 95% confidence intervals, 2.81–5.61; P < 0.0001), as it was in a logistic regression model on dichotomous NMSS total score (≤40, mild or moderate vs. >40, severe or very severe) (odds ratio, 1.31; 95% confidence intervals, 1.17–1.47; P < 0.0001). In the subgroup of patients with early PD (n = 396; mean disease duration 2.7 ± 1.5 years), motor fluctuations were frequent (18.1%) and similar results were obtained.
Conclusions
Motor complications were frequent and were associated with a greater NMS burden in patients with PD even during the first 5 years of disease duration.