In Parkinson’s disease (PD), falls and subsequent physical injuries are frequent causes of morbidity and mortality. We investigated the characteristics of falls and physical injuries in Korean patients with PD.

This study included 239 patients with PD. Using the medical records and interviews, we studied the characteristics of fall and its consequences retrospectively.

Among the 239 patients with PD, 129 (54.0%) patients had a history of fall. The mean interval between the disease onset and the first fall was 15.3 months. Among them, 83 patients (64.3%) fell more than twice. Eighty-six patients (66.7%) had physical injuries and 21 patients (15.3%) had fractures including 7 with hip fracture and 7 with arm fracture. Patients with physical injuries fell earlier and repetitively. They tended to fall during the night, toward lateral or posterior direction, and were unable to make protective hand movements.

Elderly PD patients with long duration have a high risk of fall. To prevent the physical injuries, the clinicians should try to reduce the off time and advice the patients and caregivers to limit physical activities during the night.

To determine the frequency of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) of Parkinson’s disease (PD, PDMCI) and its subtypes among non-demented PD patients, and to identify the influence of the age and presenting symptom on the development of PDMCI.

A total 141 non-demented PD patients underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment including attention, language, visuospatial, memory and frontal functions. PDMCI was defined by neuropsychological testing and was classified into five subtypes. Patients were divided into two groups (tremor vs. akinetic-rigid type) for presenting symptom and three groups according to the age. Neuropsychological performance of patients was compared with normative data.

Almost half (49.6%) of non-demented PD patients had impairment in at least one domain and can be considered as having PDMCI. Executive type of PDMCI was the most frequent and amnestic, visuospatial, linguistic and attention types followed in the order of frequency. The population of PDMCI was increasing as the age of disease onset was higher. Whereas the frequency of executive and amnestic types of PDMCI was comparable in younger group, executive type was the most frequent in older group. The patients with tremor dominant type performed worse on tests, particularly on attention test.

MCI was common even in the early stage of PD and the subtype was diverse. Unlike MCI developing Alzheimer’s disease later, executive type of PDMCI was the most common. Age was an important risk factor for development of MCI in PD. The concept of MCI should be introduced in PD.

About two thirds of the patients with multiple system atrophy (MSA) do not respond to levodopa treatment. Postmortem pathological studies and one retrospective [¹⁸F]-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDGPET) study attributed such poor response to the striatal degeneration. We prospectively investigated the relationship between levodopa responsiveness and the metabolic activities of the striatum and cerebellum in MSA patients.

In 39 patients with MSA, the UPDRS motor score was assessed and two sets of timed motor tests were perform ed before and after the levodopa treatment. After quantitative FDG PET and baseline evaluation, treatment w as started with 3 tablets of Sinemet^® 25/250 mg a day. Clinical assessments were performed monthly for three months. Metabolic activities of the caudate, anterior putamen, posterior putamen, cerebellar cortex and cerebellar vermis were measured. We compared the measurements with mean percentage changes of motor function. Also, using statistical parametric mapping (SPM) analysis, we tried to find brain areas in which metabolism correlated with the clinical changes.

Mean percentage improvements of UPDRS motor scores w ere correlated with glucose metabolism in the posterior putamen and cerebellar vermis. The mean percentage improvements of performance in Purdue peg board test correlated with the glucose metabolism in the cerebellar cortex and vermis. In SPM analysis, cerebellar glucose metabolism correlated with the improvement of UPDRS motor score and the performance of two timed motor tests.

The integrity of cerebellum, as well as posterior putamen, may be an important factor for showing the response to levodopa.

Various nonpharmacologic managements are important fundamental elements in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD). We aimed to investigate the role of telephone counseling in managing PD patients.

From November 2006 to January 2007, we studied 243 PD patients at outpatient clinic of Asan Medical Center. Detailed telephone counseling was provided using a list structured questionnaires.

There were 73 men and 170 women with an age range of 17 to 85 years (mean age, 64.9 years). Mean age at onset was 59.5 years (range, 14–82 years) and mean disease duration was 5.6 years (range, 0.3–25 years). The contents of telephone counseling included adverse effects of anti-Parkinsonian medications (24.4%), aggravation of motor symptoms (18.7%), problems due to comorbidities (17.8%), how to take medicine (13.6%), activities of daily living (diet, bowel, sleeping and safety) (12.6%), complementary or alternative medicines (3.9%) and knowledge about PD (3.0%). Persons who responded to use the telephone counseling included patients (37.9%), offspring (36.2%), spouses (17.7%) and other relatives (7.4%). Persons who received the telephone counseling were determined by level of education, sex, cohabitation and Hoehn-Yahr stage. Contents of telephone counseling varied significantly with Hoehn-Yahr stage and persons who used the telephone counseling.

Our results suggest that support system with telephone counseling may provide beneficial therapeutic intervention in PD patients, especially for those with advanced PD. The most cost-effective method for telephone support needs to be studied.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by motor and non-motor symptoms including cognitive, autonomic, sleep, and sensory disturbances. Cognitive impairment may occur in up to 80% of PD patients, and dementia in approximately 30%. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the frequency of cognitive impairment and the characteristics of cognitive deficits and to know the possibility of early detection of cognitive deficits in outpatient clinics with the questionnaire for patients and caregivers.

A total of 129 consecutive patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease were visited movement clinic from March 2006 to August 2006. Eighty-five patients performed cognitive test and questionnaires. All patients had motor symptoms with Hoehn and Yahr stage 0.5 to 3 (mean: 1.98±0.617), and evaluated with cognition by K-MMSE (Korean version of Mini-mental status examination), 7-MS (7-minutes screen test), and demographic features.

The frequency of cognitive impairment in PD patients was 44.7% (38/85), among them thirty (78.9%) patients complained memory disturbance. The characteristics of cognitive test were retrieval defect in memory, visuospatial dysfunction and categorical word fluency. With questionnaire, the complaint of memory decline and difficulties in activity of daily living (ADL) w ere important points of cognitive deficit in PD patients. However questionnaire did not showed significant correlation between complain of memory decline and cognitive deficit, only regular check with cognitive function test revealed the patient’s early cognitive impairment.

The cognitive impairment was frequent in PD patients. The characteristics of cognitive testing w ere retrieval defect in memory function and frontal executive dysfunction.