Parkinson's Disease Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Parkinson's Disease, including details on symptoms, treatment, genetics, medication.

Nosology of Parkinson's disease: looking for the way out of a quagmire.

Forman MS, Lee VM, Trojanowski JQ

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.

The discovery of SNCA mutations pathogenic for autosomal-dominant Lewy body Parkinson's disease (PD) in 1997 heralded a revolution in understanding the molecular and genetic basis of PD. Indeed, it now is clear that Lewy body PD is one of many neurodegenerative parkinsonian disorders that result from nigrostriatal degeneration caused by diverse mechanisms. However, to capitalize on these new insights and facilitate efforts to improve the diagnosis and therapy of neurodegenerative movement disorders, it is timely to define a nosology for these diseases that is based on their genetic and molecular underpinnings, as proposed here.

Published 16 August 2005 in Neuron, 47(4): 479-82.
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