Objective: To study the clinical manifestations of Parkinson’s disease with a late onset.

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is common in the elderly, the average age of its onset is 55-65 years. PD with a late onset is characterized by a feature of the neurodegenerative process, clinical picture, course and effectiveness of antiparkinsonian therapy. There are difficulties of early diagnosis in this connection.

Method: 250 patients with 1-2 stages of Hoehn & Yahr were examined, including 110 patients with a late onset- the first group (67 women and 43 men), age of onset was 71.3±4.6 years, disease duration was 3.93 ± 1.9 years. The second group consisted of 140 patients with the age of onset < 65 years (60 women and 80 men), age of onset was 52.9±3.8 years, duration of the disease was 2.96 ± 1.5 years. The diagnosis of Parkinson's disease in the 1st group was made after 2.89 ± 1.4 years, and in the comparison group – after 1.21± 0.8 years. Research methods included assessment of motor and non-motor disorders by MDS-UPDRS, NMSS. The effectiveness of antiparkinsonian therapy, the presence of comorbidities were evaluated.

Results: In the 1st group the severity of motor manifestations was significantly higher than in the comparison group (p<0.05). There was more often akinetic-rigid syndrome, especially gait impairment and the postural-kinetic component of tremor prevailed. The severity of non-motor symptoms in late onset was significantly higher, especially cognitive impairment, orthostatic hypotension and urination disorders. Non-motor phase of PD at these patients significantly more often included hyposmia, apathy and behavioral disorders during the sleep in REM phase, and in the comparison group was anxiety, constipation, skin expressions. There were 61.5% patients with cardiovascular system diseases, 60% orthopedic diseases, 19.2% chronic kidney disease, 18.1% chronic lung diseases in the 1st group and 23.1% patients with cardiovascular system diseases in 2nd group. The effectiveness of prescribed antiparkinsonian therapy was lower in elderly patients.

Conclusion: Thus, it was found that in patients with late onset of Parkinson’s disease, the complexity of early diagnosis was associated with comorbidity, clinical onset with the gait impairment, atypical tremor, cognitive impairment and depressive disorders.

« Back to 2019 International Congress

MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/late-onset-of-parkinsons-disease/