Browsing by Author "Sarma, Sankara"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Do Nonmotor Symptoms in Parkinson's Disease Differ from Normal Aging?
    (MOVEMENT DISORDERS, 2011)
    Background: Nonmotor symptoms in Parkinson's disease are frequent and affect health-related quality of life of patients. The severity and domains of nonmotor symptoms involved in Parkinson's disease and normal aging have not been compared before.Methods: We performed a prospective case-control study to assess the frequency and severity of nonmotor symptoms in patients with Parkinson's disease (n = 174) and age-matched normal controls (n = 128) using the Non-Motor Symptoms Scale.Results: Nonmotor symptoms in Parkinson's disease were ubiquitous, more frequent, and more severe than in normal aging, particularly in women. Cardiovascular, mood/cognition, and perceptual problems/hallucinations domains were rarely involved in age-matched controls. Age had no effect and sex some influence on nonmotor symptoms in Parkinson's disease. In contrast, in controls, nonmotor symptoms increased with age, and sex had no effect.Conclusions: Nonmotor symptoms in Parkinson's disease differ from those in aging in frequency, severity, sex predilection, and domain involvement. (C) 2011 Movement Disorder Society
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    Impaired facial emotion recognition in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy associated with hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS): Side and age at onset matters
    (EPILEPSY RESEARCH, 2008)
    To define the determinants of impaired facial emotion recognition (FER) inpatients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy associated with hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS), we examined 76 patients with unilateral MTLE-HS, 36 prior to antero-mesial temporal lobectomy (AMTL) and 40 after AMTL, and 28 healthy control subjects with a FER test consisting of 60 items (20 each for anger, fear, and happiness). Mean percentages of the accurate responses were calculated for different subgroups: right vs. left MTLE-HS, early (age at onset <6 years) vs. late-onset, and before vs. after AMTL. After controlling for years of education, duration of epilepsy and number of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) taken, on multivariate analysis, fear recognition was profoundly impaired in early-onset right MTLE-HS patients compared to other MTLE patients and control subjects. Happiness recognition was significantly better in post-AMTL MTLE-HS patients compared to pre-AMTL patients white anger and fear recognition did not differ. We conclude that patients with right MTLE-HS with age at seizure onset <6 years are maximally predisposed to impaired fear recognition. In them, right AMTL does not further worsen FER abilities. Longitudinal studies comparing FER in the same patients before and after AMTL will be required to refine and confirm our cross-sectional observations. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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    Long-Term Stability of Effects of Subthalamic Stimulation in Parkinson's Disease: Indian Experience
    (MOVEMENT DISORDERS, 2010)
    Reports of long-term effects of subthalamic (STN) stimulation for Parkinson's disease (PD) are few, mostly open-label evaluations and from Western centers. We used single-blind and open-label motor, cognitive and quality of life (QOL) evaluations to study the effects of bilateral STN stimulation in 45 patients over 5 years. Our patients showed a stable and substantial reduction in the cardinal signs of PD, motor fluctuations, and dyskinesias but less so for axial signs. The reduction in medications and the intensity of electrical stimulation needed also remained stable during follow up. Although the total QOL and its parkinsonism and social components showed sustained benefits till 5 years, the gains in emotional and systemic subsets were short lasting. Global scores for mood and cognition did not show significant worsening. Benefits of STN stimulation on the cardinal signs, motor complications, and QOL of advanced PD were substantial and sustained till 5 years. The initial benefits in axial motor signs and emotional and psychological aspects of QOL did not show similar stability. In general, the procedure had insignificant impact on cognition and mood. This is the first report of STN stimulation in Asian patients with PD. (C) 2010 Movement Disorder Society
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    Neuropsychological functions in progressive supranuclear palsy, multiple system atrophy and Parkinson's disease
    (NEUROLOGY INDIA, 2006)
    Background: Few studies have compared cognitive functions in multiple system atrophy (MSA), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and Parkinson's disease (PD). Aim: To compare the results of cognitive function tests in the three diseases and examine their relation with the severity of parkinsonism. Settings and Design: Clinic-based open prospective study. Materials and Methods: Global cognitive function tests and tests specific for frontal lobe functions were used in 25 cases of each disease. UPDRS III was used to measure the severity of parkinsonism. Statistical Analysis: ANOVA was done for group comparisons, followed by t-test for independent samples with Bonferroni correction. Pearson's correlation test was done to assess the relation between severity of parkinsonism and cognitive functions. Results: The severity of parkinsonism was worst in PD followed by PSP and least in MSA. Patients with PSP exhibited the worst performance in both sets of cognitive tests. Even though patients with MSA did better than PD in global function tests, they performed worse than PD in some frontal function tests. There was a negative correlation between severity of parkinsonism and scores in cognitive tests in the MSA group but not in others. Conclusions: Global and frontal dysfunction was worst in PSP. The frontal dysfunction in MSA was more severe than PD, correlated with the severity of parkinsonism and was worse in clinically probable than possible cases of MSA. The severity of cognitive dysfunction in these diseases may be related to the distribution and extent of pathological changes affecting the striato-frontal circuits in them.