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Aims: This study aims to investigate the efficacy of transcutaneous tibial nerve home stimulation for overactive bladder (OAB) in women with Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods: The current study is a prospective, randomized, double‐blind, sham‐controlled trial. Home intervention was carried out and assessments were conducted at a tertiary hospital in South Brazil. Women with PD and OAB symptoms were included in the study. Patients were randomly divided into two groups: (1) stimulation and (2) sham. Both groups underwent intervention at home for 12 weeks. Patients were evaluated at baseline and at 12 weeks (end of intervention), 30‐ and 90‐day follow‐up. The primary outcome was the mean reduction in the number of urgency incontinence episodes, and secondary outcomes included daytime and nighttime urinary frequency, urinary urgency episodes, use of pad (reported in a 24‐h bladder diary), OAB‐V8 and King's Health Questionnaire scores, and maintenance of symptom relief after discontinuation of the intervention. Results: In total, 30 consecutive patients completed the study (15/group). The stimulation group showed a reduction in nighttime urinary frequency (0.9 ± 0.6), urinary urgency (1.0 ± 1.2), urgency incontinence episodes (0.5 ± 0.6), use of pads (1.3 ± 1.2), and OAB‐V8 (1.3 ± 1.2) and King's Health Questionnaire scores. In a 30‐day and 90‐day follow‐up, 8 (53.3%) and 5 (33.3%) stimulation patients, respectively, reported full maintenance of symptom relief after discontinuation of the intervention. Stimulation patients presented a statistically significant improvement of symptoms as compared with sham patients (p =.001). Conclusions: Transcutaneous tibial nerve home stimulation can be used in clinical practice as an effective nonpharmacological resource for the reduction of OAB symptoms in women with PD, and the resulting relief seems to persist in the follow‐up (30 and 90 days). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria is the property of Thieme Medical Publishing Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria is the property of Thieme Medical Publishing Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background. This study investigated the performance of patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) without dementia for incidental recognition memory and the effect of encoding strategies on contextual memory. Methods. The authors studied 21 patients with PD (ages 60-85, 12 women; Hoehn and Yahr I-III, Activities of Daily Living 70%-100%) and 22 healthy controls (ages 60-84, 18 women). Participants completed the vocabulary subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). To assess the incidental recognition memory for item (object) and context (location of the object), participants of each group were assigned to 1 of 2 encoding conditions: (a) an incidental associative instruction to bind the object to its location or (b) a nonassociative, nonspecific instruction. Results. PD patients showed performance comparable to the control group's on the vocabulary subtest and WCST. In contrast to controls, PD patients were unable to take advantage of the associative encoding instruction, which also had a deleterious effect on item recognition. Conclusion. This sample of participants with PD showed diminished item and context recognition memory and an impaired ability to use incidental memory encoding strategy, suggesting a compromised cognitive reserve. The fact that these alterations occurred in early stages of PD, and prior to more general cognitive alterations such as executive dysfunction, should be considered in the management of patients by using specific cognitive rehabilitation interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria is the property of Thieme Medical Publishing Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease following Alzheimer's disease. Nearly 30 causative genes have been identified for PD and related disorders. However, most of these genes were identified in European-derived families, and little is known about their role in Latin American populations., Objectives: Our goal was to assess the spectrum and frequency of pathogenic variants in known PD genes in familial PD patients from Latin America., Methods: We selected 335 PD patients with a family history of PD from the Latin American Research Consortium on the Genetics of PD. We capture-sequenced the coding regions of 26 genes related to neurodegenerative parkinsonism. Of the 335 PD patients, 324 had sufficient sequencing coverage to be analyzed., Results: We identified pathogenic variants in 41 individuals (12.7%) in FBXO7, GCH1, LRRK2, PARK7, PINK1, PLA2G6, PRKN, SNCA, and TARDBP, GBA1 risk variants in 25 individuals (7.7%), and variants of uncertain significance in another 24 individuals (7.4%) in ATP13A2, ATP1A3, DNAJC13, DNAJC6, GBA1, LRKK2, PINK1, VPS13C, and VPS35. Of the 70 unique variants identified, 19 were more frequent in Latin Americans than in any other population., Conclusions: This is the first screening of known PD genes in a large cohort of patients with familial PD from Latin America. There were substantial differences in the spectrum of variants observed in comparison to previous findings from PD families of European origin. Our data provide further evidence that differences exist between the genetic architecture of PD in Latinos and European-derived populations. © 2024 The Author(s). Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society., (© 2024 The Author(s). Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.)

Three patients with eosinophilic meningitis (EoM) were investigated in two hospitals in Porto Alegre, Southern Brazil. These patients had a common exposure after the ingestion of raw mollusks in a religious ritual. Two of them had an uncommon presentation with intense lower distal extremities pain and small fiber neuropathy as defined by an electroneuromyography (ENMG) study. All three patients were positive for Angiostrongylus cantonensis serology and recovered after antihelminthic and anti-inflammatory treatment. Increased awareness of A. cantonensis infection is important to avoid new infections and to improved recognition and handling of cerebral angiostrongyliasis., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: Subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) parameters, for example the frequency of stimulation, seem to affect speech and voice aspects. However, this influence is not well understood. This study aimed to investigate the impact of low- and high-frequency STN-DBS on voice and speech for people with Parkinson's disease., Methods: Nineteen individuals with Parkinson's disease who received bilateral STN-DBS were assessed for motor performance (Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale-III), perceptual evaluation of voice (grade, roughness, breathiness, asthenia, strain, and instability [GRBASI]), dysarthria assessment, and computerized acoustic analysis of voice upon receiving low-frequency (60 Hz) and high-frequency (130 Hz) STN-DBS., Results: In the GRBASI protocol, asthenia, and instability were significantly better at 130 Hz of stimulation. In the dysarthria evaluation, the phonation aspect, articulation, and grade of dysarthria showed deterioration at the same high-frequency condition. There was no significant difference for any vocal acoustic measures., Conclusion: The high-frequency of STN-DBS may affect speech and voice differently, leading to an amelioration of the vocal production, but with adverse effects in the speech control., (Copyright © 2018 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: The decrease of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) serum levels has been related to the pathophysiology of several neurodegenerative diseases as well as to neural plasticity and rehabilitation. Automated Mechanical Peripheral Stimulation (AMPS) has been investigated as a complementary therapy for Parkinson Disease (PD)., Objectives: (1) to investigate the effects of AMPS on BDNF and Cortisol serum levels of subjects with PD; (2) to evidence the interplay between BDNF and Cortisol serum levels and the functional mobility improvement after AMPS treatment., Methods: Thirty-three subjects with PD were randomized into two groups: effective stimulation (AMPS, n = 16) or placebo stimulation (AMPS SHAM, n = 17). Fourteen healthy aged-matched subjects were included as a reference group. Each AMPS group received eight sessions of treatment using a commercial medical device (Gondola™). BDNF and Cortisol serum levels, spatiotemporal gait parameters and TUG test were assessed at baseline and after eight sessions of treatment., Results: After the treatment, AMPS group showed significantly higher levels of BDNF and lower levels of Cortisol compared to AMPS SHAM. AMPS group also showed a positive effect on gait pattern as a higher improvement on gait velocity, stride length, and TUG performance was shown., Conclusion: Effective AMPS treatment increased BDNF and decreased Cortisol serum levels and produced improvements in functional mobility.

Aim: Levodopa is first-line treatment of Parkinson's disease motor symptoms but, dose response is highly variable. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine how much levodopa dose could be explained by biological, pharmacological and genetic factors., Patients & Methods: A total of 224 Parkinson's disease patients were genotyped for SV2C and SLC6A3 polymorphisms by allelic discrimination assays. Comedication, demographic and clinical data were also assessed., Results: All variables with p < 0.20 were included in a multiple regression analysis for dose prediction. The final model explained 23% of dose variation (F = 11.54; p < 0.000001)., Conclusion: Although a good prediction model was obtained, it still needs to be tested in an independent sample to be validated.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases worldwide. Besides characteristic PD motor features, the disease has important non-motor characteristics such as cognitive impairment. The role of genetic factors in cognitive impairment associated with PD is still unclear. In this study, we examined whether BDNF Val66Met was associated with impaired cognition in Parkinson's disease. One hundred and seventy five patients with a clinical diagnosis of Parkinson's disease were included. Global cognitive abilities of the patients were measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Poisson Regression models were used to test for association between 66Met carriers and cognitive impairment controlling for covariates. Carriers of at least one BDNF 66Met allele presented a higher prevalence of cognitive impairment (p=0.005 RR=1.45 IC=95% [1.1-1.8]). These results suggest a role for BDNF Val66Met polymorphism on cognitive impairment in PD., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)