title: Daily motor performance after switching levodopa to melevodopa: an open-label on advanced Parkinson's disease with "delayed-on" and/or"wearing-off".
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Aim of the present study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy, tolerability and quality-of-life measures to melevodopa in advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) with motor fluctuations (MFs).
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 37 patients with advanced PD and MFs participated in the study. Patients were switched from standard l-dopa/carbidopa to melevodopa and were treated for 10 weeks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Assessment of "On-Day" time demonstrated improvement to about 0.7 hour in the melevodopa treatment. The benefit was greater in patients with "delayed-on" (P=0.002) and especially in those with both "delayed-on" and "wearing-off" (P<0.001). Most patients showed a significant improvement in PDQ-39 total score (P=0.002) and PSI distress domain (P<0.001). Instead, not significant difference was observed in patients with only wearing-off.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These data show that melevodopa is an effective agent for improving daily motor performance and quality-of-life in PD with "delayed-on", also in association with "wearing-off".
authors.affiliation: Operative Unit of Neurology, S. Giovanni di Dio, Crotone, Italy. nico_bosco@libero.it
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bosco
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Plastino
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bosco
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fava
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rotondo
mesh_terms: D000978:Antiparkinson Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D057915:Drug Substitution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007980:Levodopa / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000187:drug effects*; D011788:Quality of Life
chemical_list: D000978:Antiparkinson Agents; D007980:Levodopa; C035420:levodopa methyl ester