Impairment of brain vessels may contribute to mortality in patients with Parkinson's disease.

BACKGROUND: The effect of brain-vessel pathology on mortality in 57 consecutive PD patients was studied. METHODS: Baseline clinical, neuropsychological, ultrasonographic (US), and MR data obtained from patients who died (n = 18) during a 4-year follow-up period were compared with the data of patients who survived. RESULTS: US/MRI data displayed a more-severe vascular impairment in deceased patients. Differences were significant between both groups with respect to age, clinical and cognitive status, intima-media thickness, and resistance index (indicators of large and small vessel impairment). The sum score of white-matter hyperintensities was significantly higher among decedents. A cluster analysis displayed two clusters that differed in the two parameters (i.e. in age and in sum score). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence that comorbid atherosclerosis and otherwise subclinical impairment of brain vessels may contribute to mortality in PD. The vascular pathology may act in association with other comorbidities on the terrain of progressive neurodegenerative pathology.

Iowa Gambling Task in patients with early-onset Parkinson's disease: strategy analysis.

The aim of our study was to analyse decision making in early-onset Parkinson's disease (PD) patients performing the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). We compared 19 patients with early-onset PD (≤ 45 years) on dopaminergic medication (no evidence of depression, dementia, executive dysfunction according to the Tower of London test and the Stroop test, or pathological gambling) with 20 age-matched controls. A computer version of the IGT was employed. The PD patients achieved slightly lower IGT scores than the control group. A detailed analysis based on 'shift frequencies' between the individual decks showed that the patients tended to change their preferences for the decks more frequently, with a higher preference for the 'disadvantageous' deck B. Control subjects seemed to develop a more effective strategy. These differences could be caused by the poorer ability of the patients to develop any strategy at all. We observed changes in decision making during IGT performance in patients with early-onset PD, although they had no executive dysfunction as measured by established neuropsychological tests. The more detailed analysis employed in the present study could lead to a more accurate study of IGT performance and application of IGT in clinical practice.