Parkinson's disease with camptocormia.

BACKGROUND: Camptocormia is defined as an abnormal flexion of the trunk that appears when standing or walking and disappears in the supine position. The origin of the disorder is unknown, but it is usually attributed either to a primary or a secondary paravertebral muscle myopathy or a motor neurone disorder. Camptocormia is also observed in a minority of patients with parkinsonism. OBJECTIVE: To characterise the clinical and electrophysiological features of camptocormia and parkinsonian symptoms in patients with Parkinson's disease and camptocormia compared with patients with Parkinson's disease without camptocormia. METHODS: Patients with parkinsonism and camptocormia (excluding patients with multiple system atrophy) prospectively underwent a multidisciplinary clinical (neurological, neuropsychological, psychological, rheumatological) and neurophysiological (electromyogram, ocular movement recording) examination and were compared with age-matched patients with Parkinson's disease without camptocormia. RESULTS: The camptocormia developed after 8.5 (SD 5.3) years of parkinsonism, responded poorly to levodopa treatment (20%) and displayed features consistent with axial dystonia. Patients with camptocormia were characterised by prominent levodopa-unresponsive axial symptoms (ie, axial rigidity, gait disorder and postural instability), along with a tendency for greater error in the antisaccade paradigm. CONCLUSION: We suggest that (1) the salient features of parkinsonism observed in patients with camptocormia are likely to represent a specific form of Parkinson's disease and camptocormia is an axial dystonia and (2) both camptocormia and parkinsonism in these patients might result from additional, non-dopaminergic neuronal dysfunction in the basal ganglia.

Analysis of antioxidant enzyme activity and magnesium level in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

There is an increasing interest in the relationship of hypomagnesemia and oxidative stress in pulmonary diseases. It seems to be clinically relevant to assess prooxidant/antioxidant balance and its correlation with magnesium level in COPD. In this study, there were investigated the antioxidant enzymes activity and magnesium plasma level in a group of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and in the control group. The study group consisted of 41 patients admitted to hospital for ambulatory medical treatment in pulmonary department of the Medical University of Lublin. The control group was made up of 20 patients who were admitted for control examinations. Superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) activity were assessed in red blood cells using kinetics methods. Significantly decreased activity of CAT in COPD, insignificantly decreased activity of GPX and insignificantly increased activity of SOD were detected. Patients with COPD also showed the lowered plasma magnesium level. The conclusion is that COPD is accompanied by a lowered magnesium level and an alteration in antioxidant status due to possible oxidative stress in this disease.