Parkinsonism

Introduction The term parkinsonism defines the combination of two or more of four cardinal motor signs: bradykinesia (slowness of movement), resting tremor, muscular rigidity, and postural instability. This etiologically heterogeneous syndrome might be the clinical correlate of dysfunctions at various levels in the basal ganglia, and especially in the substantia nigra and striatum, caused by processes as different as neurodegeneration, inflammation, toxicity (including iatrogenic causes), tissue infiltration/compression (tumors), and ischemia. Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the principal form of parkinsonism, characterized clinically by the association of this syndrome with a progressive course and a positive response to dopamine replacement therapy, and pathologically by dopaminergic neuronal loss in the substantia nigra and other brain areas, and with the formation of cytoplasmic inclusions called Lewy bodies (LB) or Lewy neurites in the surviving neurons. Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s disease (AD), with a prevalence of more than 1% after the age of 65 years, and an increasing public health problem in the aging population.

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