2-carbomethoxy-8-(3-fluoropropyl)-3-(4-iodophenyl)tropane and Vascular-Diseases

Numerous animal studies and clinical trials have demonstrated that erythropoietin (EPO) has therapeutic effects in ischemic and degenerative diseases. However, few clinical trials have investigated the effect of EPO in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. This study was an exploratory pilot study to investigate the effects of recombinant human EPO (rhEPO) on motor and non-motor symptoms (NMS) in PD patients.. A total of 26 PD patients at the Hanyang University Hospital were enrolled in the study. The participants were randomly assigned to rhEPO and placebo groups. The rhEPO group was infused intravenously (40,000 IU each) twice a week for 5 weeks. Clinical improvement was estimated using the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale-III (UPDRS-III), the NMS Scale (NMSS) and the 39-Item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39). [(18)F] N-(3-fluoropropyl)-2β-carbon ethoxy-3β-(4-iodophenyl) nortropane (FP-CIT) photon emission tomography (PET) scanning was performed on each participant at baseline and again after 12 months.. The rhEPO administration significantly improved the NMSS and PDQ-39 scores at 12 months. The UPDRS-III, which reflects motor function, did not change significantly after the rhEPO treatment. With the NMSS, the domains of cardiovascular autonomic function, sleep/fatigue, mood/cognition and attention/memory showed significant changes. None of the participants experienced any serious adverse effects.. We found that rhEPO had beneficial effects on NMS but not on motor function. Dopaminergic refractory NMS, such as cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction and cognition, showed improvement after the administration of rhEPO. Our results suggest that rhEPO might be a good candidate for the treatment of NMS in PD patients.

Topics: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Brain; Cognition Disorders; Erythropoietin; Female; Humans; Male; Mental Disorders; Middle Aged; Parkinson Disease; Positron-Emission Tomography; Prospective Studies; Single-Blind Method; Sleep Wake Disorders; Surveys and Questionnaires; Time Factors; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Tropanes; Vascular Diseases

We describe a finding of unilaterally decreased binding of I-ioflupane in the basal ganglia in a 78-year-old woman that could be attributed to an underlying developmental venous anomaly.

Topics: Aged; Basal Ganglia; Cerebral Veins; Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; Humans; Male; Neostriatum; Nortropanes; Vascular Diseases

The concept of vascular parkinsonism (VP) has evolved since it was introduced by Critchley. The relationships between the clinical manifestations and neuroimagining of patients with VP to determine the utility of SPECT in its diagnosis have been established.. Retrospective study of patients with suspicion of VP according to Ziljmans 2004 criteria.. A total of 22 patients were included. The most frequent risk factor was AHT. The most frequent manifestations were: bradykinesis, followed by gait disorder. Response to L-dopa was related with symptoms in lower limbs (p=0.014). The most frequent alterations on the magnetic resonance imaging were: atrophy with ventricular dilation followed by white matter lesions. The Hachinski scale was related with acute onset (p=0.022) and territorial infarction (p=0.039), and the Winikates with subcortical- paraventricular white matter lesions (p=0.036), and both with gender (male) (p=0.031), and stroke background (p=0.022). Alteration in gait was associated with paraventricular white matter lesions (p = 0.043), and other manifestations with lesions in the medulla (p=0,020). Tremor was associated with bilateral involvement of putamens in SPECT (p=0.039), strategic lesion with putamen involvement (p = 0.028) and lesions of periventricular white matter lesions with SPECT type 1 and 2 (p=0.045). There were no significant relationships of the SPECT with response to L-dopa or with the scales. Discussion. The different relationships between symptoms, scales and neuroimagin show the complexity of the subject and the need to use all of them in the diagnosis of VP.

Topics: Humans; Iodine Radioisotopes; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Nortropanes; Parkinson Disease; Retrospective Studies; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; Vascular Diseases