Objective: We assessed the prevalence of functional bowel disorders in patients with Parkinson´s disease (PD) using Rome III criteria.

Background: A significant fraction of PD patients suffers from gastrointestinal symptoms which may precede motor symptoms by years. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) may be a risk factor for development of PD (1) and IBS-like symptoms are common in PD patients (2). In an ongoing study, we are investigating if gastrointestinal and other non-motor symptoms are associated with abnormalities in striatal dopamine transporter binding.

Method: 247 patients, who underwent dopamine transporter SPECT imaging in the university hospitals of Helsinki and Turku, Finland, were recruited between the years 2015-2017. The MDS-Unified Parkinson´s Disease Rating Scale part III (MDS-UPDRS) was performed at the time of imaging and non-motor symptom questionnaires were given for subjects to fill at home.The imaging data was completed and questionnaires obtained from 147 patients. We used Rome III criteria for IBS, functional constipation, functional dyspepsia, postprandial distress syndrome and functional bloating. We furthermore assessed symptoms using the Sialorrhea Clinical Scale for PD (SCS-PD), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). We used t-test and Mann-Whitney U test to assess if symptoms of functional bowel syndromes (FBD) were associated with the severity motor or non-motor symptoms in PD.

Results: Based on SPECT imaging results, 44 patients were diagnosed with PD. 31.8% of PD patients fulfilled criteria for at least one of the studied FBDs. 42.1% of female PD patients and 24.0% of male PD patients had one or more FBD. PD patients with FBDs had higher BAI scores than those without FBDs (26.00 vs 15.20, p=0.004), but no significant differences were found regarding MDS-UPDRS, BDI or SCS scores.

Conclusion: In this preliminary analysis, FBDs were more prevalent in female PD patients and associated with higher anxiety scores. This analysis may have been underpowered to detect further differences. Recruitment is ongoing to study these questions in a larger cohort.

References: Lai SW, Liao KF, Lin CL, Sung FC. Irritable bowel syndrome correlates with increased risk on Parkinson´s disease in Taiwan. Eur J Epidemiol. 2014;29(1):57-62 T.H. Mertsalmi, V.T.E Aho, P.A.B. Pereira L. et al. More than constipation -bowel symptoms in Parkinson´s disease and their connection to gut microbiota. European Journal of neurology,2017;24(11):1375-1383

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/functional-bowel-symptoms-in-parkinsons-disease/