Parkinson's Disease: Clinical Signs and Symptoms,Neural Mechanisms, Positron Emission Tomography,and Therapeutic Interventions

[摘要] Parkinson's disease is one of the mostfrequent neurodegenerative brain diseases. Itstime course is slow and is characterized byprogressive loss of dopaminergic and otherbrainstem neurons resulting in malfunctioning ofthe cerebral neuronal systems responsible formotor functions. The clinical signs are slownessof movement, muscle rigidity and rest-tremoramongst other features. The cause of the diseaseis unknown, but recently involvement of geneticfactors is being researched. Positron emissiontomography (PET) allows in vivo determinationof striatai dopaminergic activity. This hasincreased our insight in the pathophysiology ofthe disease and permits direct study of diseaseprogression at a biochemical level and equally tomonitor whether potential neuroprotective interventionsare indeed effective. Thus far no drughas emerged but promising substances arecurrently being studied.

[学科分类] 精神健康和精神病学