Premium
Elevated plasma levels of homocysteine in dystonia
Author(s) -
Müller T.,
Woitalla D.,
Hunsdiek A.,
Kuhn W.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
acta neurologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.967
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1600-0404
pISSN - 0001-6314
DOI - 10.1034/j.1600-0404.2000.90339.x
Subject(s) - dystonia , homocysteine , medicine , endocrinology , psychology , psychiatry
Objective – Several case reports with dystonia and homocysteinuria suggest a putative pathogenetic importance of homocysteine for the development of dystonia. We investigated relations between plasma homocysteine, age, severity and duration of primary idiopathic torsion dystonia. Subjects and methods – We measured homocysteine levels in blood samples drawn from 24 subjects with dystonia and controls. Results – Patients with dystonia (19.3±8.5, range 8.4–37 μmol/l) showed significantly ( P =0.008, t ‐test) increased levels of total homocysteine compared with age‐ and sex‐matched controls (13.9±4.2, range5.8–24.5 μmol/l). No significant influence of age and duration of dystonia appeared, but we found a significant trend for an association between severity of dystonia and homocysteine ( P =0.046, R =0.41). Conclusions – Our study supports previous reports on subjects with dystonia with homocysteinuria. Neurotoxic effects and N‐methyl‐D‐aspartateagonistic properties of homocysteine may hypothetically contribute to onset and severity of dystonia.