Objective This study aimed to evaluate whether a larger tissue volume increases the sensitivity of detecting alpha-synuclein (AS) pathology in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
Methods Nine patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) or idiopathic rapid eye movement sleep disorder (iRBD) who underwent GI operation and had full-depth intestinal blocks were included. All patients were selected from our previous study population. A total of 10 slides (5 serial sections from the proximal and distal blocks) per patient were analyzed.
Results In previous studies, pathologic evaluation revealed phosphorylated AS (+) in 5/9 patients (55.6%) and in 1/5 controls (20.0%); in this extensive examination, this increased to 8/9 patients (88.9%) but remained the same in controls (20.0%). The severity and distribution of positive findings were similar between patients with iRBD and PD.
Conclusion Examining a large tissue volume increased the sensitivity of detecting AS accumulation in the GI tract.
Objective Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS) in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients does not halt disease progression, as these patients will progress and develop disabling non-levodopa responsive symptoms. These features may act as milestones that represent the overall functionality of patients after DBS. The objective of this study was to investigate the development of clinical milestones in advanced PD patients who underwent bilateral STN-DBS.
Methods The study evaluated PD patients who underwent STN-DBS at baseline up to their last follow-up using the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale and Hoehn and Yahr scale. The symptoms of hallucinations, dysarthria, dysphagia, frequent falls, difficulty walking, cognitive impairment and the loss of autonomy were chosen as the clinical milestones.
Results A total of 106 patients with a mean age of 47.21 ± 10.52 years at disease onset, a mean age of 58.72 ± 8.74 years at surgery and a mean disease duration of 11.51 ± 4.4 years before surgery were included. Initial improvement of motor symptoms was seen after the surgery with the appearance of clinical milestones over time. Using the moderately disabling criteria, 81 patients (76.41%) developed at least one clinical milestone, while 48 patients (45.28%) developed a milestone when using the severely disabling criteria.
Conclusion STN-DBS has a limited effect on axial and nonmotor symptoms of the PD patients, in contrast to the effect on motor symptoms. These symptoms may serve as clinical milestones that can convey the status of PD patients and its impact on the patients and their caregivers. Therefore, advanced PD patients, even those treated with bilateral STN-DBS, will still require assistance and cannot live independently in the long run.
Objective This study aims to develop an automated and objective tool to evaluate postural abnormalities in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients.
Methods We applied a deep learning-based pose-estimation algorithm to lateral photos of prospectively enrolled PD patients (n = 28). We automatically measured the anterior flexion angle (AFA) and dropped head angle (DHA), which were validated with conventional manual labeling methods.
Results The automatically measured DHA and AFA were in excellent agreement with manual labeling methods (intraclass correlation coefficient > 0.95) with mean bias equal to or less than 3 degrees.
Conclusion The deep learning-based pose-estimation algorithm objectively measured postural abnormalities in PD patients.
Citations
Citations to this article as recorded by
Three‐Dimensional Mesh Recovery from Common 2‐Dimensional Pictures for Automated Assessment of Body Posture in Camptocormia Robin Wolke, Olga Gavriliuc, Oliver Granert, Günther Deuschl, Nils G. Margraf Movement Disorders Clinical Practice.2023; 10(3): 472. CrossRef
Assessment of Axial Postural Abnormalities in Parkinsonism: Automatic Picture Analysis Software Carlo Alberto Artusi, Christian Geroin, Gabriele Imbalzano, Serena Camozzi, Stefano Aldegheri, Leonardo Lopiano, Michele Tinazzi, Nicola Bombieri Movement Disorders Clinical Practice.2023; 10(4): 636. CrossRef
Camera- and Viewpoint-Agnostic Evaluation of Axial Postural Abnormalities in People with Parkinson’s Disease through Augmented Human Pose Estimation Stefano Aldegheri, Carlo Alberto Artusi, Serena Camozzi, Roberto Di Marco, Christian Geroin, Gabriele Imbalzano, Leonardo Lopiano, Michele Tinazzi, Nicola Bombieri Sensors.2023; 23(6): 3193. CrossRef
Genetic and phenotypic variability in adult patients with Niemann Pick type C from Serbia: single-center experience Nikola Kresojević, Valerija Dobričić, Milica Ječmenica Lukić, Aleksandra Tomić, Igor Petrović, Nataša Dragašević, Ivana Perović, Ana Marjanović, Marija Branković, Milena Janković, Ivana Novaković, Marina Svetel, Vladimir S. Kostić Journal of Neurology.2022; 269(6): 3167. CrossRef
Two Patients with Niemann Pick Disease Type C Diagnosed in the Seventh Decade of Life Melanie Wu, Rita Ceponiene, Ece Bayram, Irene Litvan Movement Disorders Clinical Practice.2020; 7(8): 961. CrossRef