Elevated plasma levels of homocysteine in dystonia.
OBJECTIVE
Several case reports with dystonia and homocysteinuria suggest a putative pathogenetic importance of homocysteine for the development of dystonia. We investigated relations between plasma homocysteine, age, severity and duration of primary idiopathic torsion dystonia.


METHODS
We measured homocysteine levels in blood samples drawn from 24 subjects with dystonia and controls.


RESULTS
Patients with dystonia (19.3 +/- 8.5, range 8.4-37 micromol/l) showed significantly (P= 0.008, t-test) increased levels of total homocysteine compared with age- and sex-matched controls (13.9 +/- 4.2, range 5.8-24.5 micromol/l). No significant influence of age and duration of dystonia appeared, but we found a significant trend for an association between severity of dystonia and homocysteine (P = 0.046, R = 0.41).


CONCLUSIONS
Our study supports previous reports on subjects with dystonia with homocysteinuria. Neurotoxic effects and N-methyl-D-aspartate agonistic properties of homocysteine may hypothetically contribute to onset and severity of dystonia.
Müller
T
T
Department of Neurology, St Josef Hospital, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.
Woitalla
D
D
Hunsdiek
A
A
Kuhn
W
W
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004421:Dystonia / Q000097:blood* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006710:Homocysteine / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
D006710:Homocysteine