title: Parkinson's disease and carotid intima-media thickness.
abstract: Reports about the impact of cerebrovascular disease (CVD) on clinical status in Parkinson's disease (PD) are rather controversial. There have been a few studies and inconsistent results regarding the coincidence of Parkinson's disease (PD) and atherosclerotic diseases, such as cerebrovascular disease. Carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) is a known marker for subclinical atherosclerosis.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study was done to investigate the carotid IMT between PD patients and controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 54 PD patients and 50 controls were examined. The duration of Parkinson's disease, the severity of Parkinson's disease (the Hoehn-Yahr stage) and carotid IMT were examined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean Hoehn and Yahr stage was 2.78 (range 2-4). Duration of disease had a mean of 7.59 +/- 0.85 years. The left CCA mean IMT was 0.900 +/- 0.147 in Parkinson group and 0.828 +/- 0.118 in control group (p = 0.007). The right CCA mean IMT was 0.891 +/- 0.176 mm in the Parkinson group and 0.860 +/- 0.164 in control group (p = 0.360). No relationship between the Hoehn and Yahr stages or the duration of PD with the IMT were found by the Pearson's correlation test.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The carotid IMT was higher in PD patients than in controls.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Alexa
authors.forename: Aurora
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Constantinescu
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Baltag
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ignat
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bolbocean
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Popescu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D059168:Carotid Intima-Media Thickness; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013997:Time Factors