Objective: We aim to describe clinical aspects of Parkinson’s disease (PD) in different ethnic groups in Israel, focusing on Non-Ashkenzi Jews (NAJ) ethnic groups vs. Ashkenazi-Jews (AJ).

Background: Little is known about phenotypical variations among the different ethnic groups of patients with PD in Israel. The clinical charcteristics of NAJ are scantly described.

Method: Demographic and clinical characteristics of PD were extracted from consecutive patients’ files. Apart from AJ, other groups were classified as North-African Jews, oriental jews originating from Iran/Iraq/Buchara, Balkan and Yemenite Jews, and Jews from mixed origin. We did two analyses. The first divided the ethnic groups into AJ and NAJ. Then we subdivided the NAJ into different subgroups. The presence of hyposmia, urinary complaints, constipation, and REM-sleep behavioral disorder (RBD) were noted dichotomously. Cognitive complaints were scored according to question 1.1 in the MDS-UPDRS-part-I. Motor features were collected: tremor predominance at onset, complaints of freezing of gate, Levodopa induced dyskinesia and motor fluctuations. Motor part of the MDS-UPDRS and Hoehn&Yahr score were collected.

Results: 127 PD Jewish patients (62.2% AJ, 57.0% males) were enrolled. The AAO was 65.9±10.3 years. the difference among the various groups was not statistically significant. 72 patients (56.7%) were genotyped [12 GBA patients (16.7%), 9 LRRK2 patients (12.5%). The rate of hyposmia was significantly higher in AJ compared to NAJ (57.9% vs. 26.7% respectively, p-value<0.001). This difference was also significant following logistic regression analysis with adjustment to disease duration (p=0.002). Out of 9 patients carrying the LRRK2 mutation only one had hyposmia. There were no significant differences in the other non-motor features. As for motor features, there were no significant differences either between AJ and NAJ or among the subgroups of the NAJ group in all variables.

Conclusion: Hyposmia is less prevalent in PD patients of NAJ origin than in AJ. The rate of hyposmia in patients of North African origin seems to be particularly low. The rate of other non-motor features is similar between NAJ and AJ patients. Other firm statements on non-motor features in the different ethnic population were absent, perhaps due to the relatively small sample of the study.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/a-lower-rate-of-hyposmia-in-non-ashkenazi-jewish-patients-with-parkinsons-disease-motor-and-non-motor-disease-characteristics-in-different-ethnic-groups-in-israel/