Multiple System Atrophy; Reports outline multiple system

We present a prospective incidence cohort study of patients with idiopathic discount tiffany syndromes in the Umea region in northern Sweden identified over a 4-year period. The clinical diagnoses were re-evaluated at follow-up visits at 12 months. We found 138 patients with parkinsonism: 112 PD, 12 multiple system atrophy with predominant parkinsonism (MSA-P), six progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and eight unclassifiable patients. The crude incidences for all age ranges per 100,000 were: PD 19.7 (95% confidence interval 16.1-23.3); MSA-P 2.1 (1.1-3.7); PSP 1.1 (0.4-2.4); idiopathic parkinsonism 24.3 (20.2-28.4). Age-standardized to the average Swedish population 2004-2007: PD 22.5 (18.3-26.7); MSA-P 2.4 (1.2-4.2); PSP 1.2 (0.4-2.6); idiopathic parkinsonism 27.5 (22.9-32.1). The crude annual incidence rate for PD, with exclusion of patients with normal dopamine receptor uptake (FP-CIT-SPECT), was 18.8 per 100,000 (95% confidence interval 15.2-22.4), age-adjusted to the average Swedish population 2004 to 2007:21.5 (17.4-25.6). The incidence rates did not differ significantly between men and women. The cumulative incidence of PD up to 89 years of age was for men 3.4%, for women 2.6%, and for both sexes combined 2.9%," wrote J. Linder and colleagues, University Hospital, Department of Neurology.

The researchers concluded: "The silver bracelets incidence rates found for PD, idiopathic parkinsonism, MSA-P and PSP are among the highest reported."

Linder and colleagues published their study in Movement Disorders (Incidence of Parkinson's disease and parkinsonism in northern Sweden: a population-based study. Movement Disorders, 2010;25(3):341-8).

For more information, contact J. Linder, University Hospital, Dept. of Neurology, Umea, Sweden.

Keywords: City:Umea, Country:Sweden, Central Nervous System Disease, Clinical Trial Research, silver cufflinks Diagnosis, Epidemiology, Movement Disorder, Multiple System Atrophy, Neurology, Parkinson Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Parkinsonian Disorders, Parkinsonism, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.