title: Valvular heart disease in patients with Parkinson's disease treated with pergolide, levodopa or both.
abstract: Cardiac valvulopathy has been reported in patients with Parkinson's disease treated with pergolide. The aim of this study was to clarify the frequency and severity of valvular heart disease (VHD) in patients treated with pergolide, levodopa or both. We evaluated VHD by transthoracic echocardiography in 25 patients who were taking pergolide, 29 patients taking levodopa and 20 patients taking both levodopa and pergolide. All groups were compared with two separate age-matched control groups. There was no increase in the frequency of any type of echocardiographically-significant valvulopathy in the pergolide groups. Echocardiographically significant aortic regurgitation was found in 8% of the patients in the pergolide group and in 37.9% of the patients in the levodopa group. There was no correlation between VHD and pergolide dose, cumulative dose or duration of therapy. The mean pergolide dose was 2.6+/-1.4 mg/day in the pergolide monotherapy group. We did not find any unequivocal evidence that pergolide causes significant valvular regurgitation. However, the mean pergolide dosage in our study was lower than in previous studies.
authors.affiliation: Movement Disorders Outpatient Clinic, Department of Neurology, Haseki Educational and Research Hospital, Ataköy 9. kisim A 14/B Daire, 138 Istanbul, Turkey. ffozer@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Feriha
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ozer
authors.forename: Raziye
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tiras
authors.forename: Sibel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cetin
authors.forename: Oya
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ozturk
authors.forename: Tuba
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Aydemir
authors.forename: Serkan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ozben
authors.forename: Hasan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Meral
authors.forename: Sibel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kizkin
authors.forename: Halit
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bader
authors.forename: Beste
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ozben
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D018491:Dopamine Agonists / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006349:Heart Valve Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007980:Levodopa / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy*; D010479:Pergolide / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D018491:Dopamine Agonists; D010479:Pergolide; D007980:Levodopa