Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0030567 (Parkinson's disease)
 63,064 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

An 82 year-old woman with Parkinson's disease complained of a tendency to fall. She has had an extensive kyphosis since she was 66 years old. Over the last 6 months, she has repeatedly fallen. Even though she took anti-parkisonian drugs, she had also developed camptocormia. Her plasma levodopa concentration was analyzed for 4 hrs after administrating an oral dose of levodopa (200 mg) plus carbidopa (20 mg) at the time of fasting. The change in the plasma levodopa concentration showed bimodal peaks. The physical symptoms depended on the plasma concentration and improved twice. Esophageal tortuosity and esophageal hiatal hernia were detected by esophagography and upper gastric endoscopy. Such physical symptoms were speculated to have been caused by the transit disturbance of the drug in the gastrointestinal duct. During a second analysis of the plasma levodopa concentration, the patient was instructed to keep extending her back after consuming the same dose of drugs but with a greater amount of water than in the first analysis. A single and a higher peak were observed for the plasma levodopa concentration, and the physical symptoms, including camptocormia and parkinsonism, were improved. Hunched posture could influence the absorption of antiparkinsonian drugs.
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PMID:[Severe kyphosis and esophagus hiatal hernia affected in the levodopa absorption of a patient with Parkinson's disease]. 1982

A 73-year-old woman with Parkinson disease (PD) was admitted to our hospital because of aspiration pneumonia. She presented with recurrent episodes of loss of consciousness with bradycardia while swallowing solid foods or fluids. Upper endoscopy revealed a normal esophagus without hiatus hernia, cancer, diverticulum, stenosis, or achalasia. Balloon inflation at the cervical esophagus induced sinus arrest and bradycardia followed by a loss of consciousness. The diagnosis of swallow syncope (SS) was confirmed. Esophageal dilatation and an increase in the esophageal pressure induced by esophageal peristaltic disturbance associated with PD can cause SS by stimulating the vagal reflex. In addition, the head-up tilt test showed that she had orthostatic hypotension, and the coefficients of variations of the R-R intervals on electrocardiograms and the total number of beat-to-beat differences greater than 50 mseconds in the RR interval during a 24 hour ambulatory electrocardiogram were normal. The cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction characterized by the presence of sympathetic inhibition and a preserved parasympathetic function might be involved in the onset of SS. Permanent pacemaker implantation improved her clinical symptoms. The recognition of SS on the examination of a PD patient with loss of consciousness while eating is important, as PD patients might develop SS due to peristaltic disturbance and autonomic dysfunction caused by PD.
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PMID:[A case of swallow syncope associated with Parkinson disease]. 3081 49