Objective: To analyze the relationship between nutritional intake and weight aspects in 3 groups of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) who are receiving different pharmacological therapies such as intestinal levodopa/carbidopa, Parkinson’s surgery (deep brain stimulation, DBS), or oral levodopa (L-dopa).

Background: PD is a neurodegenerative disease that presents motor and non-motor symptoms with nutritional alterations being one of the most affected areas.

Method: We performed a pilot study with 26 PD patients under three different treatments (10 oral L-dopa treatment, 5 intestinal levodopa/carbidopa, and 11 DBS). Motor function (UPDRS and Hoehn y Yahr scale), non-motor symptoms (NMSS scale), general cognitive status (MoCA), quality of life (PDQ-39), and nutritional status was evaluated. The nutritional status included a subjective nutritional status, weight, B6 and B12 vitamins, homocysteine, and proteinogram. One-way ANOVA, Tukey’s test for post-hoc, and Spearman´s correlation analysis were performed to analyze and compare the nutritional profiles between groups.

Results: Statistically significant differences were observed in motor function (p=.021), non-motor symptoms (p=.025), general cognitive status (p=.058), and quality of life (p=.031) between the L-dopa and intestinal levodopa/carbidopa groups. However, between L-dopa and DBS groups were only statistically significant differences in motor function (p=.019). No significant differences were found in nutritional status between groups. Correlations between groups revealed that older patients with DBS had less weight, height, and albumina; and higher MNA scores were related to more B12 vitamin. The disease duration of the intestinal levodopa/carbidopa group was related to weight loss but more B12 vitamin. While disease duration of L-dopa group was related wot weight loss, fewer MNA scores, and fewer albumina.

Conclusion: Our preliminary results pointed out that disease duration was related to worse nutritional status in L-dopa and intestinal levodopa/carbidopa group. All groups presented weight loss. A higher sample size is necessary to verify that good nutritional support is important to improve the quality of life of patients with PD

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/nutritional-status-in-advanced-parkinsons-disease-preliminary-results/