Heart failure in Parkinson's disease: analysis of the United States medicare current beneficiary survey

OBJECTIVE

We sought to examine the prevalence of heart failure in elderly PD versus non-PD patients using a national sample of Medicare beneficiaries in the United States.

SCOPE

The prevalence of heart failure in elderly PD patients was 2.27 times that of non-PD patients (19.4% versus 8.7%, 95% CI = 1.43-3.60, p 0.0005), and remained twice as high after excluding patients with stroke and possible vascular parkinsonism.

CONCLUSIONS

In this cross-sectional study of a national Medicare database, heart failure occurred twice as frequently in elderly PD patients as in non-PD patients. Prospective studies are warranted to verify these findings.

Driving safety in Parkinson's disease

In this study, 39 patients with PD and 25 control subjects without neurologic disease completed testing in a driving simulator. PD patients had more total collisions on the driving simulator than control subjects (t = -3.7, p < 0.01). In PD patients, collisions were associated with Hoehn and Yahr stage (chi(2) = 12.4, p = 0.006) and correlated with Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale score (r = 0.5, p < 0.01).

Silicone slings for the correction of ptosis associated with progressive external ophthalmoplegia

Tarsofrontalis suspensions using silicone rods were performed in eleven patients for the ptosis associated with progressive external ophthalmoplegia. All patients had the eyelids elevated above the level of the pupils with resultant full field of vision and improved cosmesis. Patients have been followed for three to 24 months.