Summary
We correlated monoamine concentrations in the cerebrospinal fluid from de novo (untreated) patients with Parkinson's disease with their clinical symptoms and therapeutic outcome after two years of L-dopa with/without other anti-parkinson medication. A significant correlation was found between the severity of some parkinsonian symptoms and the reduction in particular monoamines: Hoehn and Yahr's stage with dopamine, norepinephrine, and homovanillic acid: rigidity with dopamine; akinesia with dopamine and norepinephrine; freezing of gait with norepinephrine; and dementia with dopamine and homovanillic acid. Tremor had no correlations with the concentrations of the monoamines measured. Patients with dementia had a significantly increased level of epinephrine concentrations.
Insufficient therapeutic responses of invidividual symptoms were associated with significantly decreased concentrations of particular monoamines before treatment: Hoehn and Yahr's stage with norepinephrine and epinephrine; akinesia with homovanillic acid and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid; and freezing of gait with dopamine, norepinephrine, homovanillic acid, and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid. These results suggest a significant correlation between the reduction in particular monoamines and the severity of some parkinsonian symptoms and their subsequent responses to L-dopa.
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Tohgi, H., Abe, T., Takahashi, S. et al. Monoamine metabolism in the cerebrospinal fluid in Parkinson's disease: relationship to clinical symptoms and subsequent therapeutic outcomes. J Neural Transm Gen Sect 5, 17–26 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02260911
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02260911