Objective: Main objective of study is to check the association between furosemide use and risk of Parkinson’s disease (PD) in a Finnish nationwide nested case-control study, and an indication-restricted case-control study among persons with heart failure or renal failure.
Background: New treatments for PD are needed and drug repurposing may aid in this. Furosemide, a diuretic commonly used in heart failure and renal failure, was associated with lower risk of PD in French population. Confirmation of this association is important.
Method: 19 568 PD cases and 130 156 sex, age, and region-matched controls from the register-based Finnish study on PD (FINPARK, diagnosed 1999-2015) were included. A case-control study restricted to those with heart failure or renal failure was conducted, including 1 222 PD cases and 4 766 controls, matched on age, sex, region and duration of heart failure or renal failure. Furosemide use was identified from Prescription register (1995-2015), and exposure to furosemide was determined as ever, at least 3, 5 or 8 years before the outcome. Association were studied with conditional logistic regression model adjusted for occupational social class, exposure to agricultural work, asthma/COPD, cancer, head injury and number of days stayed in a hospital. Covariates were measured before the exposure assessment.
Results: Regardless of the study population or exposure assessment period, furosemide use was not associated with risk of PD (e.g., crude OR 0.96; 95% CI 0.83-1.12 for furosemide use at least 5 years before the diagnosis in indication-restricted study and crude OR 0.99; 95% CI 0.93-1.06 in the entire FINPARK study). And adjusted OR, 95% CI were 0.95 (0.82-1.11) for furosemide use at least 5 years before the diagnosis for indication-restricted design and 1.00 (0.93-1.06) in the entire FINPARK study.
Conclusion: Our nationwide indication-restricted case-control study of people with PD having heart failure or renal failure found no robust evidence on the association between the use of furosemide and risk of PD.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
B. Babar, AM. Tolppanen, S. Hartikainen, M. Tiihonen. Association between use of Furosemide and Risk of Parkinson’s disease [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2024; 39 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/association-between-use-of-furosemide-and-risk-of-parkinsons-disease/. Accessed June 14, 2025.« Back to 2024 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/association-between-use-of-furosemide-and-risk-of-parkinsons-disease/