Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0026837 (muscle rigidity)
1,077 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We report a 65-year-old man with rigid-bradykinetic parkinsonism, vertical gaze palsy, difficulty in eye-lid opening, and marked pseudo-bulbar palsy. He felt difficulty of it, hand movement at 59 years old. When he was 60 years old, monotonous speech and slowness of movement appeared. He visited a neurologist who noted vertical gaze palsy, neck rigidity, and bradykinesia. He was diagnosed as progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and given 300 mg L-Dopa/Benserazide by the neurologist. This medication improved his rigidity and bradykinesia. At 62 years of the age, his eye-lids closed involuntary and it was difficult to open. In addition, he began to complain of wearing-off, autonomic symptoms, and dysphagia. Anti-parkinsonian drugs were increased, but his bradykinesia progressed. At 64 years of the age, he was admitted to the Neurology Service of Juntendo Hospital. On admission, he was alert and not demented. No aphasia, apraxia, or agnosia was noted. In the cranial nerves, upward and downward gaze were markedly restricted. His face was hypomimic and seborrhoic. It was difficult to swallow liquid or solid for him. No weakness was noted, but he walked in small steps with freezing and falling tendency to backward. Rigidity was noted on his extremities and stronger on his left side than right. Tremor was absent. Bradykinesia of his body and extremities was marked. No cerebellar ataxia was noted. Deep tendon reflexes were within normal range. Planter response was flexor bilaterally. Myerson's sign was noted. Sensory and autonomic function were normal. He was treated with L-Dopa, Pergolide, and Bromocriptine. However, these medications improved his bradykinesia and gait disturbance only slightly, dysphagia became progressively worse. He developed aspiration pneumonia when he was 65 years old and admitted to Juntendo Hospital. A large amount of sputum was aspirated from his trachea. Two days after from admission, he was found dead on his bed. He was discussed in a neurological CPC and the chief discussant arrived at a conclusion that the patient had progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Other differential diagnoses included Parkinson's disease, pallido-nigroluysian atrophy (PNLA), multiple system atrophy (MSA), and corticobasal degeneration(CBD). Many participants considered that PSP or PNLA was most likely. Post-mortem exmination revealed marked nigral neuronal loss and gliosis. The globus pallidus and the luysian body changed mildly. However, the frontal cortex was relatively spared, there were many ballooned neurons in the cortical layer. Other parts were spared. With sliver (Bodian and Gallyas-Braak) and anti-phsphorylated tau stain, abundant astrocytic plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and argyrophilic threads on the frontal cortex, striatum, and substantia nigra were seen. There was no tufted astrocyte which was hallmark of diagnosis of PSP. In addition, several Lewy bodies were seen in the brainstem. Because astrocyte plaque was considered specific for pathology of CBD, the pathologist revealed that the pathological diagnosis of this patient was CBD. Nevertheless, discussion was focused on the relatively mild degeneration of the frontal cortex for CBD.
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PMID:[A 65-year-old man with rigid-bradykinetic parkinsonism, vertical gaze palsy, difficulty of eye-lid opening, and marked pseudo-bulbar palsy]. 1578 4

Positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) can measure striatal dopamine (DA) terminal function in vivo as reflected by DA storage capacity and transporter binding. In Parkinson's disease (PD) posterior dorsal putamen DA terminals are initially targeted, the anterior putamen and head of caudate subsequently becoming affected. In contrast, dopaminergic function in pallidal, amygdala, and cingulate regions is upregulated in early PD and only later becomes reduced. Rigidity and bradykinesia in PD have been shown to correlate with loss of putamen dopaminergic function, whereas performance on executive and working memory tasks correlates with integrity of caudate dopaminergic terminals. 11C-RTI32 PET, a marker of noradrenergic and dopaminergic transporter binding, can be used to assess noradrenergic along with dopaminergic terminal function. Serotonergic transporter binding can be assessed with 11C-DASB PET and 123I-beta CIT SPECT, whereas HT1A binding can be measured with 11C-WAY100635 PET. With these modalities, the relationship between mood, noradrenergic and serotonergic function can be examined in PD. The functional effects of focal DA replacement on DA storage capacity and patterns of brain activation via implantation of fetal midbrain cells or glial derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) infusion into putamen of PD patients has been examined with PET. Both approaches lead to consistently increased levels of putamen 18F-dopa uptake, and cell implantation can restore levels of frontal activation. Clinical outcome, however, has proved to be variable and off-medication dyskinesias are an unwanted side effect in transplanted cases. Dopamine release after pharmacological challenges or during behavioral tasks can be assessed indirectly by studying changes in receptor availability to PET radioligands. Stereotyped sequential movements are associated with striatal DA release, and this increases with more complex behaviors and the presence of financial incentives, which also increase frontal DA levels. Parkinson patients release less putamen DA than healthy control subjects during stereotyped finger movements. Interestingly, those PD patients who develop a dopa dependency syndrome, craving their medication, generate significantly greater levels of ventral striatal DA compared with similarly disabled patients without such a psychological dependency. In the future, functional imaging is likely to throw light on the roles of peptide transmission in regulating mood and behavior as non-peptide analogue ligands become available. Novel markers of amyloid plaque load will also help clarify the etiology of dementia in PD.
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PMID:Imaging in Parkinson's disease: the role of monoamines in behavior. 1658 Oct 32