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Parkinson's disease: A broken nosology
Author(s) -
Hardy John,
Lees Andrew J.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
movement disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.352
H-Index - 198
eISSN - 1531-8257
pISSN - 0885-3185
DOI - 10.1002/mds.20532
Subject(s) - nosology , pars compacta , substantia nigra , lewy body , disease , parkinson's disease , neuroscience , degenerative disease , pathological , medicine , alpha synuclein , pathogenesis , dementia , pathology , psychology
Abstract Parkinson's disease (PD) is a clinical diagnosis. We argue here that if we are to make progress in understanding its underlying pathogenesis, there is a need to have a pathological definition of disease that includes the presence of Lewy bodies and nigral loss in the ventrolateral tier of the pars compacta of the substantia nigra. Using such a definition, there is only one certain and known cause: mutations in the α‐synuclein gene. However, the phenotype of this one known cause is broader than PD and encompasses Lewy body dementia. © 2005 Movement Disorder Society