ObjectiveTo observe the macular retinal thickness and volume in patients with different degrees of Parkinson's disease (PD).MethodsThirty eyes of 30 patients with primary PD and 20 eyes of 20 healthy subjects (control group) in Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University from October 2016 to October 2017 were enrolled in this study. There were 17 males and 13 females, with the mean age of 63.2±6.4 years and disease course of 3.9±2.4 years. The patients were divided into mild to moderate PD group (15 eyes of 15 patients) and severe PD group (15 eyes of 15 patients). The macular area was automatically divided into 3 concentric circles by software, which were foveal area with a diameter of 1 mm (inner ring), middle ring of 1 to 3 mm, and outer ring of 3 to 6 mm. The middle and outer ring were divided into 4 quadrants by 2 radiations, respectively. The changes of retinal thickness and macular volume of the macular center and its surrounding quadrants were analyzed. SPSS 16.0 software was used for statistical analysis. One-way ANOVA were used to analyze all data.ResultsCompared with the control group, the retinal thickness and volume in macular center and each quadrant of the mild to moderate PD group and severe PD group were reduced. Compared with the mild to moderate PD group, the retinal thickness and volume in macular center and each quadrant of the severe PD group were reduced. The differences of retinal thickness and macular volume among 3 groups were significant (F=5.794, 5.221, 5.586, 5.302, 5.926, 5.319, 5.404, 5.261, 5.603; P=0.001, 0.007, 0.003, 0.005, 0.000, 0.004, 0.004, 0.006, 0.002). In inner ring of the mild to moderate PD group and the severe PD group, the retinal thickness and macular volume in the upper and the nasal were the largest, the inferior was followed, and the temporal was the smallest. In outer ring of the mild to moderate PD group and the severe PD group, the retinal thickness and macular volume in the nasal was the largest, the upper was the second, the temporal and the inferior were the smallest.ConclusionsThe retinal thickness and volume of the macular central fovea and its surrounding areas in PD patients are significantly thinner than that in the healthy subjects. And with the increase of the severity of PD, the macular structure changes obviously, showing macular center and its surrounding macular degeneration thin, macular volume reduced.
Patients with early Parkinson＇s disease should be treated rationally in order to improve their quality of life and reduce the motor complications. The early employment of drugs which provides sustained central dopamine agonism and dopaminergic neuroprotection may reach this aim to some extent. Evidence of effective therapy in early Parkinson＇s disease will be introduced including： dopamine agonists, monoamine oxidase inhibitor 13, coenzymeQ10, L-dopa and a gait training.
At present, the incidence of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is gradually increasing. This seriously affects the quality of life of patients, and the burden of diagnosis and treatment is increasing. However, the disease is difficult to intervene in early stage as early monitoring means are limited. Aiming to find an effective biomarker of PD, this work extracted correlation between each pair of electroencephalogram (EEG) channels for each frequency band using weighted symbolic mutual information and k-means clustering. The results showed that State1 of Beta frequency band (P = 0.034) and State5 of Gamma frequency band (P = 0.010) could be used to differentiate health controls and off-medication Parkinson’s disease patients. These findings indicated that there were significant differences in the resting channel-wise correlation states between PD patients and healthy subjects. However, no significant differences were found between PD-on and PD-off patients, and between PD-on patients and healthy controls. This may provide a clinical diagnosis reference for Parkinson’s disease.
Parkinson’s disease is a common chronic progressive neurodegenerative disease, and its main pathological change is the degeneration and loss of dopaminergic neurons in substantia nigra striatum. Vitamin D receptors are widely distributed in neurons and glial cells, and the normal function of substantia nigra striatum system depends on the level of vitamin D and the normal expression of vitamin D receptors. In recent years, from basic to clinical research, there are some differences in the conclusion of the correlation of vitamin D and its receptor gene polymorphism with Parkinson’s disease. This paper aims to review the research on the correlation of vitamin D and vitamin D receptor gene polymorphism with Parkinson’s disease, and discuss the future research direction in this field.
ObjectiveTo evaluate visual field changes in early mild Parkinson's disease. Methods A total of 66 eyes of 33 cases with early mild Parkinson's disease and 72 eyes of 36 age-matched normal individuals were enrolled into the study. Humphrey Field Analyzer II was applied for central visual field test. The visual field indices of mean deviation (MD) and pattern standard deviation (PSD) were analyzed to evaluate the location and the characteristics of visual field defect in this study. ResultsVisual field indices MD (-3.4±2.5) dB was significantly changed in patients with PD when compared to the controls (-0.6±1.7) dB. PSD (4.3±2.6) was significantly higher in patients with PD than that in the control group (2.1±1.8) dB. Glaucoma hemifield test (GHT) assessment was within normal limits in the controls. Of the 33 patients (66 eyes) in PD, GHT showed outside normal limits in 31 eyes, borderline in 8 eyes, and within normal limits in 27 eyes. 31 eyes outside normal limits appeared glaucomatous visual field defects, in which 16 with nasal step and 5 with arcuate defect. ConclusionsVisual field indices including MD and PSD in early mild patients with PD were significantly worse than that in the controls group. GHT abnormalities could be found in early mild PD patients with visual field defects, including pericentral scotoma and nasal step, which mimicked glaucomatous changes.
Objective To observe the changes of retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness and its correlation with visual field mean defects（MD）in Parkinsonprime;s disease (PD).Methods Fifteen eyes of 15 PD patients in early stage and 18 eyes of 18 normal controls undertook RNFL examination by Stratus OCT3. Circular scans (diameter is 3.46 mm) were taken around the optic nerve head including eight quadrants (superior, inferior, temporal, nasal, temporalsuperior, temporalinferior, nasalsuperior and nasalinferior). The RNFL thickness in different quadrants in the two groups was analyzed. The visual field of PD patients was measured by central 302 program of Humphery750 visual field analyzer, and the MD was recorded. The correlation between RNFL thickness and MD was analyzed by linear correlation and regression analysis.Results RNFL thicknesses of superior, inferior, temporal, nasal, temporalsuperior, temporalinferior, nasalsuperior, nasalinferior and average RNFL thickness in the control group were (132.7plusmn;17.4), (141.5plusmn;15.3) ,（83.2plusmn;17.5）, (83.7plusmn;22.3) ,（120.8plusmn;21.2）, (117.9plusmn;24.5) ,（109.6plusmn;20.6）,（110.2plusmn;27.7）, and（109.9plusmn;8.5）mu;m respectively, while in the PD group they were (128.1plusmn;25.3) , (128.6plusmn;13.2) , (68.7plusmn;13.5) , (76.5plusmn;17.8) ,（102.6plusmn;23.7）, (103.3plusmn;14.1) ,（101.2plusmn;20.9）,（96.6plusmn;15.0）,（102.3plusmn;11.9） mu;m. Compared with each other, the differences of RNFL thickness of inferior, temporal, temporalsuperior, temporalinferior and average RNFL thickness were statistically significant（t=2.595，2.700，2.330，2.153，2.131；P=0.014，0.011，0.026，0.040，0.041）. There was a close negative relationship between average RNFL thickness and MD in PD patients (r=-0.933，P＜0.0001). Conclusions RNFL thickness was significantly thinner in PD patients than that in the normal controls. There was a negative relationship between RNFL thickness and MD in PD patients.