Abstract
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative condition presenting with motor and non-motor symptoms including somatosensory disturbances. As neuropathic syndromes in advanced PD patients are supposed to be due to antiparkinsonian medication, we studied the presence of somatosensory symptoms and peripheral nerve function in drug naïve patients with PD as well as age-matched healthy controls. Somatosensory symptoms and signs were investigated in 39 de novo PD patients and 32 age-matched healthy controls using the modified Toronto Clinical Neuropathy Scale. To elucidate potential underlying mechanisms, peripheral nerve function was analyzed with sensory and motor neurography. About two thirds of de novo diagnosed levodopa naïve PD patients (66.7 %) reported somatosensory symptoms in comparison to one third of the control group (31.2 %) (p = 0.003). The presence of PD (p = 0.017) was a predictive factor for the occurrence of somatosensory symptoms among all participants. In contrast to the significantly higher frequency of somatosensory symptoms in patients with PD compared to controls, neurographically based peripheral nerve function did not differ between the groups. Our results indicate that somatosensory symptoms are a PD feature, which can be found when diagnosed first and independently of dopaminergic treatment. As the electrophysiologically determined peripheral nerve function was not different from that obtained in the control group, somatosensory symptoms are inherent in early PD and may be, at least partially, of central origin.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beach TG, Adler CH, Sue LI, Vedders L, Lue L, White Iii CL, Akiyama H, Caviness JN, Shill HA, Sabbagh MN, Walker DG, Arizona Parkinson’s Disease Consortium (2010) Multi-organ distribution of phosphorylated alpha-synuclein histopathology in subjects with Lewy body disorders. Acta Neuropathol 119(6):689–702. doi:10.1007/s00401-010-0664-3
Beck AT, Ward CH, Mendelson M, Mock J, Erbaugh J (1961) An inventory for measuring depression. Arch Gen Psychiatry 4:561–571
Bril V, Tomioka S, Buchanan RA, Perkins BA (2009) Reliability and validity of the modified Toronto Clinical Neuropathy Score in diabetic sensorimotor polyneuropathy. Diabetic Med 26(3):240–246. doi:10.1111/j.1464-5491.2009.02667.x
Bullinger M (1995) German translation and psychometric testing of the SF-36 health survey: preliminary results from the IQOLA project. International Quality of Life Assessment. Soc Sci Med 41(10):1359–1366
Ceravolo R, Cossu G, Bandettini di Poggio M, Santoro L, Barone P, Zibetti M, Frosini D, Nicoletti V, Manganelli F, Iodice R, Picillo M, Merola A, Lopiano L, Paribello A, Manca D, Melis M, Marchese R, Borelli P, Mereu A, Contu P, Abbruzzese G, Bonuccelli U (2013) Neuropathy and levodopa in Parkinson’s disease: evidence from a multicenter study. Mov Disord 28(10):1391–1397. doi:10.1002/mds.25585
Cersosimo MG, Benarroch EE (2012) Autonomic involvement in Parkinson’s disease: pathology, pathophysiology, clinical features and possible peripheral biomarkers. J Neurol Sci 313(1–2):57–63. doi:10.1016/j.jns.2011.09.030
Comi C, Magistrelli L, Oggioni GD, Carecchio M, Fleetwood T, Cantello R, Mancini F, Antonini A (2014) Peripheral nervous system involvement in Parkinson’s disease: evidence and controversies. Parkinsonism Relat Disord 20(12):1329–1334. doi:10.1016/j.parkreldis.2014.10.010
Del Tredici K, Braak H (2012) Lewy pathology and neurodegeneration in premotor Parkinson’s disease. Mov Disord 27(5):597–607. doi:10.1002/mds.24921
Djaldetti R, Shifrin A, Rogowski Z, Sprecher E, Melamed E, Yarnitsky D (2004) Quantitative measurement of pain sensation in patients with Parkinson disease. Neurology 62(12):2171–2175
Donadio V, Incensi A, Leta V, Giannoccaro MP, Scaglione C, Martinelli P, Capellari S, Avoni P, Baruzzi A, Liguori R (2014) Skin nerve alpha-synuclein deposits: a biomarker for idiopathic Parkinson disease. Neurology 82(15):1362–1369. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000000316
Doppler K, Ebert S, Uceyler N, Trenkwalder C, Ebentheuer J, Volkmann J, Sommer C (2014) Cutaneous neuropathy in Parkinson’s disease: a window into brain pathology. Acta Neuropathol 128(1):99–109. doi:10.1007/s00401-014-1284-0
Folstein MF, Folstein SE, McHugh PR (1975) “Mini-mental state”. A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. J Psychiatr Res 12(3):189–198
Gierthmuhlen J, Lienau F, Maag R, Hagenah JM, Deuschl G, Fritzer E, Klein C, Baron R, Helmchen C (2009) Somatosensory processing in a German family with PINK1 mutations: its potential role in Parkinson disease. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 80(5):571–574. doi:10.1136/jnnp.2008.158659
Gierthmuhlen J, Schumacher S, Deuschl G, Fritzer E, Klein C, Baron R, Helmchen C (2010) Somatosensory function in asymptomatic Parkin-mutation carriers. Eur J Neurol 17(3):513–517. doi:10.1111/j.1468-1331.2009.02797.x
Hoehn MM, Yahr MD (1967) Parkinsonism: onset, progression and mortality. Neurology 17(5):427–442
Hughes AJ, Ben-Shlomo Y, Daniel SE, Lees AJ (1992) What features improve the accuracy of clinical diagnosis in Parkinson’s disease: a clinicopathologic study. Neurology 42(6):1142–1146
Juri C, Rodriguez-Oroz M, Obeso JA (2010) The pathophysiological basis of sensory disturbances in Parkinson’s disease. J Neurol Sci 289(1–2):60–65. doi:10.1016/j.jns.2009.08.018
Lyoo CH, Ryu YH, Lee MJ, Lee MS (2012) Striatal dopamine loss and discriminative sensory dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease. Acta Neurol Scand 126(5):344–349. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0404.2012.01657.x
Miki Y, Tomiyama M, Ueno T, Haga R, Nishijima H, Suzuki C, Mori F, Kaimori M, Baba M, Wakabayashi K (2010) Clinical availability of skin biopsy in the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. Neurosci Lett 469(3):357–359. doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2009.12.027
Muller B, Larsen JP, Wentzel-Larsen T, Skeie GO, Tysnes OB, Parkwest Study G (2011) Autonomic and sensory symptoms and signs in incident, untreated Parkinson’s disease: frequent but mild. Mov Disord 26(1):65–72. doi:10.1002/mds.23387
Muller T, van Laar T, Cornblath DR, Odin P, Klostermann F, Grandas FJ, Ebersbach G, Urban PP, Valldeoriola F, Antonini A (2013) Peripheral neuropathy in Parkinson’s disease: levodopa exposure and implications for duodenal delivery. Parkinsonism Relat Disord 19(5):501–507. doi:10.1016/j.parkreldis.2013.02.006 (discussion 501)
Nolano M, Provitera V, Estraneo A, Selim MM, Caporaso G, Stancanelli A, Saltalamacchia AM, Lanzillo B, Santoro L (2008) Sensory deficit in Parkinson’s disease: evidence of a cutaneous denervation. Brain 131(Pt 7):1903–1911. doi:10.1093/brain/awn102
Patel N, Jankovic J, Hallett M (2014) Sensory aspects of movement disorders. Lancet Neurol 13(1):100–112. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(13)70213-8
Rajabally YA, Martey J (2011) Neuropathy in Parkinson disease: prevalence and determinants. Neurology 77(22):1947–1950. doi:10.1212/WNL.0b013e31823a0ee4
Seiss E, Praamstra P, Hesse CW, Rickards H (2003) Proprioceptive sensory function in Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease: evidence from proprioception-related EEG potentials. Exp Brain Res 148(3):308–319. doi:10.1007/s00221-002-1291-6
Snider SR, Fahn S, Isgreen WP, Cote LJ (1976) Primary sensory symptoms in parkinsonism. Neurology 26(5):423–429
Storch A, Odin P, Trender-Gerhard I, Fuchs G, Reifschneider G, Ray Chaudhuri K, Jost WH, Ebersbach G (2010) Non-motor Symptoms Questionnaire and Scale for Parkinson’s disease. Cross-cultural adaptation into the German language. Der Nervenarzt 81(8):980–985. doi:10.1007/s00115-010-3010-z
Toth C, Breithaupt K, Ge S, Duan Y, Terris JM, Thiessen A, Wiebe S, Zochodne DW, Suchowersky O (2010) Levodopa, methylmalonic acid, and neuropathy in idiopathic Parkinson disease. Ann Neurol 68(1):28–36. doi:10.1002/ana.22021
Wang N, Gibbons CH, Lafo J, Freeman R (2013) alpha-Synuclein in cutaneous autonomic nerves. Neurology 81(18):1604–1610. doi:10.1212/WNL.0b013e3182a9f449
Zia S, Cody FW, O’Boyle DJ (2003) Discrimination of bilateral differences in the loci of tactile stimulation is impaired in subjects with Parkinson’s disease. Clin Anat 16(3):241–247. doi:10.1002/ca.10100
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Financial disclosures
Fabian Klostermann received honoraria for advisory activities or lecturer from Archimedes, UCB, Ipsen, and Abbott, and holds grants from the German Research Foundation (Kl 1276/4 and Kl 1276/5).
Conflict of interest
None of the authors have any conflict of interest with respect to the present work.
Ethical approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendment or comparable ethical standards.
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Additional information
K. A. Schindlbeck and A. Mehl are equally contributed to this work.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schindlbeck, K.A., Mehl, A., Geffe, S. et al. Somatosensory symptoms in unmedicated de novo patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. J Neural Transm 123, 211–217 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-015-1459-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-015-1459-4