title: Bell's palsy preceding Parkinson's disease: a case-control study.
abstract: We investigated the association of Bell's palsy (BP) with the subsequent risk of Parkinson's disease (PD) using a case-control study design. We matched 196 incident cases of PD in Olmsted County, MN, to 196 general population controls with same age (+/-1 year) and sex, and we reviewed the complete medical records of cases and controls in a medical records-linkage system to detect BP. Six of the 196 patients with PD and none of the 196 controls were diagnosed with BP before PD (exact binomial probability, P = 0.02). The median age at occurrence of BP was 49.5 years (range, 15-84 years) and the median time between BP and the onset of PD was 27.5 years (range, 2-54 years). The findings were similar using a standardized incidence ratio (SIR) approach, but were not statistically significant. This initial association between BP and PD awaits replication.
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, Department of Health Sciences Research, College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA.
authors.forename: Rodolfo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Savica
authors.forename: James H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Bower
authors.forename: Demetrius M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Maraganore
authors.forename: Brandon R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Grossardt
authors.forename: Walter A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Rocca
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D020330:Bell Palsy / Q000150:complications*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008910:Minnesota; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000209:etiology*; D055815:Young Adult