Objective: Determine and compare performance in activities of daily living between vascular parkinsonism (VP) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients in a hospital-based sample.

Background: Despite the recognition of VP as a distinct entity, differential diagnosis from parkinsonian syndromes remains difficult. Some features have been described as more specific for VP like lower body signs and symptoms leading to postural instability and balance impairment, which can imply lower performance in activities of daily living.

Method: We prospectively enrolled 49 patients, 16 with VP and 33 with PD. Analyses included clinical features and scores for Barthel Index for Activities of Daily Living (BI) and The Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire (PDQ39).

Results: Patients had a mean age of 75 years old and 55% were male. Age of symptoms onset were higher for VP patients (p<0,05). Concerning performance in activities of daily living, we found VP patients had worse scores for BI (with categorization of variable, we obtained a p value < 0,05) and PDQ39 scales (even though no statistically significance was achieved).

Conclusion: VP patients had lower performance in activities of daily living as shown by worse scores at BI and PDQ39 scales (even though no statistically difference was attained in this item) suggesting this could be another point of interest in differential diagnosis.

References: • Kalra, S, et al. Differentiating Vascular Parkinsonism from Idiopathic Parkinson’s Disease: A Systematic Review. Movement Disorders. 2010; 25 (2):149–156. • Rektor I et al. An updated diagnostic approach to subtype definition of vascular parkinsonism e Recommendations from an expert working group. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. (2017) Dec 29. 1-8 • P.G. Glass, A.J. Lees, A. Bacellar, J. Zijlmans, R. Katzenschlager, L. Silveira-Moriyama, The clinical features of pathologically confirmed vascular parkinsonism, J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. 83 (2012): 1027-1029. • C. Jenkinson, R. Fitzpatrick, P. Viv, R. Greenhall, N. Hyman, The Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39): development and validation of a Parkinson’s disease summary index score, Age and Ageing. 26 (1997): 353-357. • P. Hagell, M.H. Nilsson. The 39-item Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39): is it a unidimensional construct?, Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders, 2(4) (2009): 205–214 • G. Sinoff, L. Ore, The Barthel Activities of Daily Living Index: Self-Reporting Versus Actual Performance in the Old-Old (>=75 years), JAGS, 45 (7) (1997): 832-836

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