Category Archives: Parkinson’s

“Applause sign” to diagnose PSP?

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The “applause sign” test is useful in diagnosing progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), according to recent research.  The “applause sign” is where you ask someone who might have PSP to clap.  While clapping, you tell them to stop.  The person with PSP continues to clap; it takes them awhile to stop.

In a study done by Dubois, 30 out of 42 patients diagnosed with PSP could not stop applauding immediately after being told to stop.  None of those with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) or Parkinson’s Disease (PD) had trouble stopping.

So I guess the part of the brain that controls this process is not affected by PD or FTD…?  The “applause sign” is an indication of “motor perseveration.” Perhaps this is controlled by the frontal lobe so interesting that it’s not affected in FTD.

I’ll ask the neurologist to do this in Dad’s next appt.  I’m interested in seeing this.

Copied below is part of the abstract of the Dubois article (published 6/05 in Neurology) from PubMed (pubmed.gov).

Robin

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“Applause sign” helps to discriminate PSP from FTD and PD

The “applause sign” is a simple test of motor control that helps to differentiate PSP from frontal or striatofrontal degenerative diseases. It was found in 0/39 controls, 0 of 24 patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), 0 of 17 patients with Parkinson disease (PD), and 30/42 patients with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). It discriminated PSP from FTD (p < 0.001) and PD (p < 0.00). The “three clap test” correctly identified 81.8% of the patients in the comparison PSP and FTD and 75% of the patients in the comparison of PSP and PD.

NIH/NINDS Creatine Study Press Release

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If you are interested in research going on in the Parkinson’s world that might affect the atypical parkinsonism disorders, this post may be of value to you.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has organized a nationwide effort called NET-PD (Neuroprotection Exploratory Trials in Parkinson’s Disease), a randomized, double-blind futility trial, to study compounds that may slow the clinical decline of Parkinson’s disease.  Creatine and the antibiotic minocycline were identified as agents worthy of preliminary study.

In a press release on the study that was released in conjunction with the World Parkinson Congress in Feb ’06, the lead investigator said that a “clinical trial with 200 Parkinson’s disease patients has shown that creatine and minocycline may warrant further consideration for study in a large trial.”

Here’s a link to the press release titled
“Preliminary Results Shows Creatine and Minocycline May Warrant Further Study in Parkinson’s Disease”:

www.ninds.nih.gov/news_and_events/press_releases/pressrelease_parkinsons_20060223.htm

The bottom line is this:

“The trial investigators note that while encouraging, this pilot study does not have sufficient numbers of patients or duration of follow-up to recommend that patients with Parkinson’s take either agent.  In fact, the investigators caution Parkinson’s patients and their physicians not to interpret the results of this study as suggesting such a course of treatment.  Further study is required before the researchers can conclude whether creatine or minocycline is in fact helpful, harmful or has no significant impact.”

Robin

Points from an expert physical therapist – on PD and parkinsonism

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I attended Marilyn Basham’s presentation this afternoon on “Caregiving Made Easy for Parkinson’s Individuals.”  She’s the physical therapist (PT) at The Parkinson’s Institute (TPI).  I picked up a few tidbits at the presentation that I thought I’d pass along.  As the presentation was focused on Parkinson’s Disease (PD), not everything applied to the situations we are dealing with but there were still many interesting points that apply.

Here are the points I found interesting….  (with some of my comments in parantheses)

People with PD and Parkinsonism MUST use a walker or wheelchair to make them as safe as possible.  It’s very important to have mobility and postural strategies worked out with a physical therapist and/or neurologist.

PD is evident when 60-80% of the cells in the basal ganglia have died.

The “automatic motor programs” we have are stored in the basal ganglia.  One of these “programs” is what tells us that to stand up from a low chair, we need to scoot to the edge, put our feet underneath us, lean forward, and push up.  PD folks must either receive cues as to the steps of these programs, or they must practice it so many times that doing it becomes somewhat automatic again.

To overcome freezing (called “gait initiation failure”), you can put masking tape on the floor to provide a visual cue.  Put the tape at thresholds or where ever the person often has the freezing problem.  (Of course this won’t work for those with PSP who have downward gaze palsy.)

A suggested verbal cue to give someone who wants to speak is:  “Swallow.”  (pause to let the person swallow)  “Take a deep breath in and then, at the top of your breath tell me what you want.”  (pause to let this happen)  Swallowing is important because fluid accumulates in the back of the throat and those with PD are not aware of it.  You can give them gum to initiate a swallow response.

Before someone with MSA (or PD with blood pressure fluctuations) stands up, give them a glass of water with salt in it or Gatoraid.  This will increase the blood pressure.  Obviously the person’s diet and blood pressure medication needs to be taken into account before following this suggestion.

We must give time for those with these diseases to process information!  Be patient!  Give long pauses.  Don’t overload them.  Don’t give them more than one complex task at a time.  Walking is a complex task.

(Some of you know that my father and I communicate by our holding up fingers to designate an answer.  Example, “do you want 1 for coffee, 2 for tea, or 3 for nothing,” and I hold up 1, 2, and 3 fingers.  He answers by holding up fingers.  Long after the fingers come up, he may try to verbalize the answer.)  I asked Marilyn why my father could hold up fingers faster than he could verbalize a response.  Marilyn said she didn’t know why but pointed out that parents of small children teach their children sign language long before the children can verbalize.

Dementia is rare in PD.  (It’s definitely common in the Atypical Parkinsonism diseases.)  PD folks may lose their keys but they still remember what keys are and how to use them.  (I thought that was a good story for remembering what dementia is.  My dad, for example, cannot remember how to use an ATM card.  I see the dementia very clearly.)

A patch for Sinemet is in the works.  (Some of your loved ones take Sinemet.)

The head of TPI thinks that PD is the most curable of all the neurodegenerative diseases.  (Let’s hope he’s right because hopefully those diseases related to PD can be cured quickly too.)

Regards,
Robin

Two distinct types of PSP – RS and PSP-parkinsonism

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Here’s the citation to a very important paper published recently on progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP):

Brain. 2005 Jun;128(Pt 6):1247-58. Epub 2005 Mar 23. 
Characteristics of two distinct clinical phenotypes in pathologically proven progressive supranuclear palsy: Richardson’s syndrome and PSP-parkinsonism.
Williams DR, de Silva R, Paviour DC, Pittman A, Watt HC, Kilford L, Holton JL, Revesz T, Lees AJ.
The Queen Square Brain Bank for Neurological Disorders, University College London, UK.

Dr. David Williams and others from The Queen Square Brain Bank in London examined the brains and clinical records of 103 people with autopsy-confirmed PSP. They discovered two key clinical types of PSP:  Richardson’s Syndrome and PSP-parkinsonism.

The authors described Richardson’s Syndrome (RS) as follows:

“The core clinical features of PSP appears to be bradykinesia, rigidity and postural instability, and are almost always present later in the disease.  Together with the supranuclear vertical ophthalmoplegia, dementia, dysarthria and pseudobulbar palsy, they form the classic features of PSP.  When these features appear in the first 2 years, a diagnosis of RS is most likely.”

The authors described the PSP-parkinsonism type as follows:

“The features which most clearly differentiate this syndrome from RS appear to be an asymmetric onset, extra-axial dystonia, tremor and benefit from levodopa.  Early bradykinesia appears to be essential for the diagnosis, but does not adequately differentiate it from RS, especially later in the disease course.  Disease duration in PSP-P is significantly longer than in RS, and to our knowledge exceeds median survival in all clinicopathological PSP case series.”

Here’s the abstract to this important paper:  (broken into paragraphs)

“The clinical diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) relies on the identification of characteristic signs and symptoms. A proportion of pathologically diagnosed cases do not develop these classic features, prove difficult to diagnose during life and are considered as atypical PSP. The aim of this study was to examine the apparent clinical dichotomy between typical and atypical PSP, and to compare the biochemical and genetic characteristics of these groups.

In 103 consecutive cases of pathologically confirmed PSP, we have identified two clinical phenotypes by factor analysis which we have named Richardson’s syndrome (RS) and PSP-parkinsonism (PSP-P). Cases of RS syndrome made up 54% of all cases, and were characterized by the early onset of postural instability and falls, supranuclear vertical gaze palsy and cognitive dysfunction. A second group of 33 (32%) were characterized by asymmetric onset, tremor, a moderate initial therapeutic response to levodopa and were frequently confused with Parkinson’s disease (PSP-P). Fourteen cases (14%) could not be separated according to these criteria. In RS, two-thirds of cases were men, whereas the sex distribution in PSP-P was even. Disease duration in RS was significantly shorter (5.9 versus 9.1 years, P < 0.001) and age at death earlier (72.1 versus 75.5 years, P = 0.01) than in PSP-P.

The isoform composition of insoluble tangle-tau isolated from the basal pons also differed significantly. In RS, the mean four-repeat:three-repeat tau ratio was 2.84 and in PSP-P it was 1.63 (P < 0.003). The effect of the H1,H1 PSP susceptibility genotype appeared stronger in RS than in PSP-P (odds ratio 13.2 versus 4.5). The difference in genotype frequencies between the clinical subgroups was not significant. There were no differences in apolipoprotein E genotypes.

The classic clinical description of PSP, which includes supranuclear gaze palsy, early falls and dementia, does not adequately describe one-third of cases in this series of pathologically confirmed cases. We propose that PSP-P represents a second discrete clinical phenotype that needs to be clinically distinguished from classical PSP (RS). The different tau isoform deposition in the basal pons suggests that this may ultimately prove to be a discrete nosological entity.”

From my reading, the PSP-parkinsonism type of PSP looks like Parkinson’s Disease and may look like MSA, specifically the parkinsonism type (MSA-P).

According to the full article, some people with PSP actually had a response to levodopa therapy!  Do the diagnostic criteria need to be changed to accommodate this finding?

Robin

Update from 2007:

This important paper is now available online at no cost.

Here’s the direct link to the Brain ’05 article:

brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/128/6/1247

And I think the commentary is worth reading too:

brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/128/6/1235

 

Disclose early, find roses, and hope in Parkinson’s (2005 article by Daniel Stark)

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I’ve been reading about the importance of hope, and ran across this article from The Washington Post, published last week. It’s certainly worth reading. The author, Daniel Stark, has written extensively about his battle with Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Though it’s about PD, I think the principles apply to any neurodegenerative disorder.

Here’s a link:

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/20/AR2005062001057.html

Living Large With Parkinson’s
It’s A Messy Path Ahead, the Author Finds — But Better With a Map
By Daniel Stark
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, June 21, 2005; Page HE01

Robin