Advancements
- Jui Keskar
- Jun 2, 2022
- 2 min read
1)
Parkinson’s disease and mortality
Patients with Parkinson's disease have a higher mortality risk that is disease-related and shows early in the disease's course. Higher age, more severe motor disability, and postural instability are all independent future indicators of mortality and indicate a significantly higher chance of death. Those with more severe motor problems and postural instability-gait difficulty are at the greatest risk of dying early. Developing dementia puts patients at a higher risk of mortality.
The risk of dying for PD patients gradually grows during the first 10 years after diagnosis. Some patients can experience hallucinations, recurrent falls etc. in the first 10 years.
The latter finding in the following study suggests that the increased mortality risk in PD is disease-related instead of comorbidities at baseline. Mortality does not depend on age, sex, smoking, and comorbidity status.
Following is the link to the original source:
2)
Watch the feet!
In PD, patient’s movement gets slow. The stride length reduces which affects the ankle, which results in patients adopting to a flat-foot type walk. This may cause pain in foot, leg and knee.
The development of Parkinson's disease is marked by muscle twitching, spasms, and cramping.
Another symptom of the disease is curled and clenched toes.
The affected person may experience swelling in the ankles and feet as a result of limited movement, which is known as oedema. Medication for this may cause heaviness in legs and difficulty in wearing shoes.
3)
Parkinson’s and Risk factors
Middle aged individuals after the age of 60 are more likely to develop PD. As per health experts, men are more prone to PD than women. Exposure to commonly used pesticides and herbicides, can make people more prone to PD.
Following is the link to the original source:
4)
Selfie to detect PD
Early detection of PD is the key to better and more effective management of disease. Today, believe it or not, selfies can help you detect PD. A young girl in UK has developed an AI based app that detects PD by the facial expressions of patients.
Following is the link to the original source:
5)
Designer neurons
In new research by a top university, a new technique for turning non-neuronal cells into working neurons that may take up residence in the brain, send out their branches in body, that would distribute dopamine, and restore capacities lost due to Parkinson's disease's elimination of dopaminergic cells; was discussed.
Following is the link to the original source:
6)
Why only a specific type of neuron dies in in PD?
The death of dopamine-producing neurons in the brain — specifically in the substantia nigra, a tissue deep within the midbrain — is a hallmark of Parkinson's disease. While contemporary medications like levodopa can help replenish lost dopamine and relieve symptoms, the underlying neuron loss is permanent. On this, research was done by top researchers at top universities. By researching on cells of a few post mortem brain samples from patients and people who have never been diagnosed with PD, they found 10 different types of neurons which secrete dopamine in substantia nigra, including the one which looks to be highly susceptible to the disease's DNA variations' impacts. This study suggested specific mechanisms for how and why cells die in PD.
Following is the link to the original source:
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