Early Diagnosis and Preventive Therapy in Parkinson's Disease [antikvár]

Preface Recent studies show an age-dependence of a variety of neuro-transmitters, their metabolites and the receptor systems. Similar re-search strategies are in line with the suggestion that Parkinson's disease cannot be regarded as a simple pronunciation of aging. Rather the underlying pathophysiology is independent of or superimposed to normál aging processes. It has thus been hitherto assumed that Parkinson's disease, if diagnosed early, could be treated in such a way that any progression could be halted or at least minimized. This idea prompted us to organize a workshop dedicated to the question of an early diagnosis and possible therapeutic strategies. A variety of meth-odological possibilities are available. However, uncertainity exists about the specificity and sensitivity of such methods. In fact, our cur-rent knowledge and today's availability of circumscribed methods of different origin do not put us in a position to be able to come to a conclusive diagnosis of Parkinson's disease by the use of only one of these strategies. On the contrary, a high rate of diagnostic accuracy can be achieved only by the use of several methods includ-ing imaging techniques, biochemical, electrophysiological and clinical assessments. A second item concerned the possible therapeutic strategies of early Parkinson's disease. Here, overall agreement was achieved be-tween all participants: a patient with early signs of Parkinson's disease should be treated from the outset. Furthermore, it became evident that not all MPTP-antagonizing substances are of therapeutic value in Parkinson's disease. It alsó transpired that a variety of animal species are more useful for simulating the early phase of Parkinson's disease (e.g. rats, mice) while others are more suitable for covering the symp-toms of advanced phases (e.g. monkeys). These proceedings give a survey of the most recent aspects of early diagnosis and preventive therapeutical strategies. By including the most important parts of the discussions, we hope to give the read-er a lively insight into the problems behind these important new vistas and stimulate the scientific community into developing methods and diagnostic possibilities to help prolong both the life-