News Releases & Research Results Early changes in Parkinson's disease, identified using health examination data

The results of research conducted by Professor Masahisa Katsuno and Graduate student Katsunori Yokoi of the Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya University.

• In a clinical study on Parkinson's disease, an intractable neurodegenerative disease, patients’ health examination data were analyzed, demonstrating changes in blood pressure and hematocrit (the percentage of red blood cells in total blood) and serum cholesterol levels before the onset of motor symptoms.
• Specifically, female patients with Parkinson's disease showed elevated blood pressure before the onset of motor symptoms, while male counterparts presented with lower hematocrit, total cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels.
• The results of this research suggest that blood pressure and hematocrit and serum cholesterol levels may serve as biomarkers for Parkinson's disease among the health examination items.

This project was conducted with the support of Research and Development Grants for Dementia by AMED.

The results were published in the British scientific journal Scientific Reports on November 25.

Yokoi K., et al. Longitudinal analysis of premotor anthropometric and serological markers of Parkinson’s disease Scientific Reports
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-77415-1