Elizabeth Maria Aparecida Barasnevicius Quagliato

Urinary symptoms in Parkinson's disease: prevalence and associated factors

The authors present a cross-sectional study involving 61 patients with idiopathic Parkinsons disease (PD) who were consecutively examined and compared to a control group with 74 subjects. Only patients who fulfilled the standard diagnostic criteria for PD and whose brain magnetic resonance imaging was normal were included. The objective of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of inferior urinary tract symptoms in PD and to study the possible association between clinical factors to urinary dysfunction. ln the patient group, 39.3% presented urinary symptoms when compared to 10.8% in the control group. All symptomatic patients presented irritative symptoms. The most common irritative symptom PD was nocturia, followed by frequency and urinary incontinence. Around 25% of the patients presented functional obstructive symptoms determined by the disease. The most frequent obstructive symptom was incomplete emptying of the bladder. Only the age of the patients and control group were correlated with urinary dysfunction.

Psychopathological features in patients with Parkinson's disease and related caregivers' burden

Along with classical motor disorders in Parkinsons disease (PD), psychopathological features frequently co‐occur, which may increase the caregivers burden.

Pain in Parkinson’s disease: analysis of 50 cases in a clinic of movement disorders

INTRODUCTION Pain is a common symptom in Parkinsons disease (PD), and is often related to the illness itself. OBJECTIVE To prospectively establish the occurrence of pain in PD patients. METHOD This study was conducted within a population composed of 50 patients with PD to evaluate the presence of pain. RESULTS Twenty-eight patients reported pain; comparing the group with pain and the group without pain, there were no differences related to the beginning of the illness and the motor symptoms of PD. However, many patients related an improvement of pain when antiparkinsonian therapy was initiated or adjusted. CONCLUSION The use of techniques for analgesia and the adjustment of PD medication contribute to improve the manifestations of pain and the life quality of patients with PD.

The effect of psychotherapy in patients with PD: a controlled study.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether group psychotherapy was effective in improving of quality of life and would decrease the symptoms of anxiety and depression in Parkinsons disease patients. Sixteen subjects, with idiopathic Parkinsons disease recruited from the school clinical Hospital/UNICAMP. Were randomly divided in to two groups, experimental and control. Parkinsons Disease and Quality of Life - PDQL; Beck Depression Inventory - BDI; State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory - STAI were used to evaluate the patients. The statistical analysis showed significant effect of the interaction group vs. time in depression (0.0009), anxiety (<0.0001) and QuoL (0.0018) and positive changes in depression (0.0029), anxiety (0.0009) and QuoL (0.0047) for the treated group.

Prospective, Randomized, Double-Blind Study, Comparing Botulinum Toxins Type A Botox and Prosigne for Blepharospasm and Hemifacial Spasm Treatment

Botulinum toxin A (BTA) is considered an effective treatment of blepharospasm and hemifacial spasm, but there are few studies to permit a comparison of its different formulations. This prospective, randomized, double-blind study compared Prosigne, a BTA of Chinese origin, with Botox to establish safety, efficacy, and equivalence of doses between those 2 formulations in blepharospasm and hemifacial spasm treatment. Fifty-seven patients participated in this study: 21 blepharospasm (from whom 11 were treated with Botox; and 10, with Prosigne) and 36 hemifacial spasm patients (17 were treated with Botox; and 19, with Prosigne). All patients were similar in age, disease time span, number of previous shots, and time elapsed since the last BTA application. Pain and burning during the injection and the result of the treatment were similar in both groups. There were no systemic adverse events, and the local ones were observed with similar intensity and frequency for both groups. The mean effect time length was similar for both blepharospasm (11.3 weeks for both toxins) and hemifacial spasm patients (12.8 weeks for Botox and 12.9 weeks for Prosigne). In both blepharospasm groups, only the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey emotional aspects domain showed improvement from baseline after 16 weeks. There were no differences between the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey scores before and after the treatment of all hemifacial spasm patients. Therefore, it has been concluded that Botox and Prosigne have similar efficacy, safety, and tolerability profiles, so that a dose equivalence of 1:1 may be considered for blepharospasm and hemifacial spasm treatments.

Depression in patients with Parkinson's disease: Impact on functioning

Depression is a frequently observed neuropsychiatric phenomenon in Parkinsons disease (PD) and it has been lately considered as a manifestation of such disease. The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between depression and clinical aspects of PD and to assess the impact of the co-occurrence of such condition on the burden imposed by PD. Fifty outpatients diagnosed with idiopathic PD according to the London Brain Bank criteria were examined. PD was evaluated using Hoehn & Yahr staging (H&Y), United Parkinsons Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) and Schwab & England (S&E) functional capacity evaluation. A semi-structured clinical interview was used. The diagnosis of PD was made by neurologist experts on movement disorders, and the diagnosis of depression was made by a psychiatrist, according to the ICD-10 diagnostic criteria. Depressive symptoms were additionally measured using the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Scale. The analysis of quantitative data was performed using descriptive statistics, univariate linear regression, T-Student Test and ANOVA. Seventeen (34%) patients were diagnosed as clinically depressed and, when compared to the non-depressed ones, presented the following results: H&Y: 3.2 vs. 2.8; UPDRS total: 75.7 vs. 65.3; S&E: 53.5% vs. 65.8% and PD duration: 114.4 months vs. 125.8 months. Depressed patients showed more advanced staging (H&Y), a more severe global clinical condition (UPDRS) and also a greater decrease in their functional capacity (S&E). These data reinforce the hypothesis that depression is associated to poorer functioning in patients with PD.

A prospective, randomized, double-blind study comparing the efficacy and safety of type a botulinum toxins botox and prosigne in the treatment of cervical dystonia.

Botulinum toxin A (BTA) is considered an effective treatment of cervical dystonia. The aim of this prospective, randomized, double-blind study was to compare Botox and Prosigne, a BTA of Chinese origin, with a view to establish the safety, the efficacy, and the equivalence of doses of the 2 formulations in the treatment of cervical dystonia. Twenty-four patients were randomized to receive 300 U of Botox or Prosigne (12 patients in each group). The patients were assessed before the injection and after 4 and 16 weeks by the Toronto Western Spasmodic Torticollis Rating Scale and the Short-Form 36 for quality of life before and 16 weeks after the injection. All patients were comparable in age, time since onset, number of previous injections, and time since last BTA application. According to the Toronto Western Spasmodic Torticollis Rating Scale scores, the patients improved after injection and the scores increased after 16 weeks, without returning to baseline values. Both pain and burning during the injection and the treatment outcomes were similar in both groups. No systemic adverse events occurred, and the severity and frequency of local events were comparable in both groups. Average duration of effect was similar in both groups (11 weeks). The quality-of-life evaluations before and after the injections were comparable in both groups. Social aspects, pain, and vitality improved after 16 weeks in both groups. In conclusion, Botox and Prosigne were determined to have equivalent efficacy, safety, and tolerability profiles and dose equivalence for cervical dystonia treatment is 1:1.

Evaluation of Taenia solium and Taenia crassiceps cysticercal antigens for the serodiagnosis of neurocysticercosis

We evaluated the usefulness of seven cysticercal antigen extracts, four from Taenia solium cysticerci (whole parasite‐TsoW, membrane‐TsoMe, vesicular fluid‐TsoVF and scolex‐TsoSc) and three from T. crassiceps cysticerci (whole parasite‐TcraW, membrane‐TcraMe and vesicular fluid‐TcraVF), for serodiagnosis of neurocysticercosis with an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Cysticercus‐specific IgG were screened in serum samples from 23 patients with neurocysticercosis, 32 patients with other infections and 48 healthy persons. The best results were obtained with the TsoVF‐ELISA (91.3% sensitivity; 96.2% specificity) and TcraVF‐ELISA (91.3% sensitivity; 95% specificity). The ELISA done with whole parasite and membrane extracts from cysts of T. solium and T. crassiceps and the scolex extract from T. solium cysts showed a low performance in terms of sensitivity, ranging from 47.8% to 73.9%. None of the antigen preparations from T. solium and T. crassiceps cysticerci used in this study showed outstanding performance for the serodiagnosis of neurocysticercosis. However, considering the results obtained with the seven antigen preparations, vesicular fluid from T. solium and T. crassiceps cysticerci may be useful for detecting specific antibodies in sera from patients with neurocysticercosis.

Pain in Parkinson's disease

Pain may precede the diagnosis in Parkinsons disease (PD). The goal of this study was to assess the pain in a group of 20 females and 30 males with PD, after excluding co-morbidities as causes. It was used the following tools: Unified Parkinsons Disease Rating Scale, McGill questionnaire and Beck Depression Inventory. In 27 patients (54%), the pain was associated with PD, occurring in 22 (44%) in the off period and 5 (10%) in both on and off periods. The off period resulted in an increased frequency of pain, which was related to stiffness. There was no association between pain and tremor in off period, neither between pain and Modified Hoehn and Yahr stage, nor the Schwab and England scale. It was not observed an association between pain and depression, neither between pain and dyskinesia. It was noticed the improvement in pain in 16 patients with levodopa (59.26%).

A quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the immunodiagnosis of neurocysticercosis using a purified fraction from Taenia solium cysticerci

A quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the immunodiagnosis of neurocysticercosis is described. The ELISA was standardized using a purified Taenia solium cysticerci fraction (PCF) obtained by ion exchange chromatography. The ELISA using PCF (PCF-ELISA) and a qualitative ELISA using a whole extract from T. solium cysticerci (WEC-ELISA) were used to screen for cysticercus-specific IgG antibodies in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from 57 patients with neurocysticercosis and 50 patients with other neurologic disorders. The sensitivity of both assays was 95%, whereas the specificities of PCF-ELISA and WEC-ELISA were 100% and 92%, respectively. The excellent sensitivity and specificity of the PCF-ELISA make this assay a potentially useful tool in screening for antibodies against T. solium cysticerci.