Vascular Parkinsonism

Vascular parkinsonism is produced by one or more small strokes that affect the basal ganglia. A stroke is the loss of activity of a discreet brain area (lesion) because of blockage of the blood supply to that brain region. Vascular diseases are associated with a higher prevalence of Parkinson's Disease [1]. There are three different pathologic states that produce Vascular Parkinsonism (VP), including multiple lacunar infarctions in the basal ganglia area [2,3], subcortical arteriosclerotic changes (Binswanger's disease) [2,3] and a single vascular lesion that present a clinical picture indistinguishable from Parkinson's disease [2,3,4]. Parkinson's Disease symptoms occur in Vascular Parkinsonism [5-12]. However, resting tremor is either reduced [5,6], or absent [7,8]. Only a minority, but a large minority, of people with Vascular Parkinsonism respond to L-dopa [9,10].

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[4] Journal of Clinical Neuroscience [2001] 8 (3)  268-271 (S.Peters, E.G.Eising, H.Przuntek, T.Muller)

[5] Di Yi Jun Yi Da Xue Xue Bao [2005] 25 (7)  868-870 (D.Q.Zhao)

[6] Archives of Neurology [1999] 56 (1)  98-102 (J.Winikates, J.Jankovic)

[7] Acta Neurologica Scandinavica [1992] 86 (6)  588-592 (C.M.Chang, Y.L.Yu, H.K.Ng, S.Y.Leung, K.Y.Fong)

[8] Stroke [1997] 28 (5)  965-969 (H.Yamanouchi, H.Nagura)

[9] Journal of Neurology [2005] 252 (9)  1045-1049 (LRampello, A.Alvano, G.Battaglia, R.Raffaele, I.Vecchio, M.Malaguarnera)

[10] Journal of Neurological and Neurosurgical Psychiatry [2004] 75 (4)  545-547 (J.C.Zijlmans, R.Katzenschlager, S.E.Daniel, A.J.Lees)

[11] Acta Neurologica Scandinavica [2001] 104 (2)  63-67 (M.Demirkiran M, Bozdemir H, Sarica Y.)

[12] Movement Disorders [1996] 11 (5)  501-508 (J.C.Zijlmans, P.J.Poels, J.Duysens, J.van der Straaten, T.Thien, M.A.van't Hof, H.O.Thijssen, M.W.Horstink)