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Patients
with Parkinson's disease who experience a drop in blood pressure
when they stand up suddenly may be reacting to the loss of
sympathetic nerves, according to researchers at the National
Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda,
Maryland.
The condition,
called orthostatic hypotension, was previously blamed on the
effects of levodopa (L-dopa), a popular drug used in the treatment
of Parkinson's disease.
New findings
point to the orthostatic hypotension seen in Parkinson's disease
patients being caused by a loss of sympathetic nerves as a
result of the Parkinson's disease itself. Sympathetic nerves
are responsible for automatic body functions such as blood
pressure and temperature control.
Researchers
studied 41 patients with Parkinson's disease, 18 of whom also
had orthostatic hypotension, along with a group of 16 control
participants. The group underwent PET scanning to calculate
sympathetic nerve loss.
Most of
the Parkinson's patients in the study had some sympathetic
nerve loss but the patients with orthostatic hypotension had
the greatest loss, according to the study published in the
journal Neurology.
Source:
Medical Week staff,
week of May 5, 2002
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