Clinical Correlates of Vascular Parkinsonism

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Abstract
PARKINSONISM, a clinical syndrome of rest tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity, and postural instability, can result from a variety of causes. Idiopathic parkinsonism or Parkinson disease (PD) is characterized by the presence of Lewy bodies, and by degeneration of the lateral substantia nigra pars compacta, the cause of which is not yet known. The autopsy findings in 100 patients clinically diagnosed as having PD, reviewed by the London Parkinson's Disease Brain Bank Study, confirmed PD in 76 cases, but showed other pathologic findings in 24, including vascular disease in 3 cases.1 This autopsy report underscores the clinical difficulty in distinguishing between patients with PD and those with secondary parkinsonism, and the need for identifying clinical characteristics that may improve diagnostic accuracy.