These findings suggest that damage to left-hemisphere plays a disproportionately greater role in PD-related psychosis over time. In contrast, motor laterality does not consistently affect other NMS, suggesting that NMS are related to a more widespread brain disorder.

Visual symptoms are common among the nonmotor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease. The aims of this study were to assess the diagnostic accuracy and relationship of retinal morphologic and functional changes with motor and non-motor symptoms disturbances in Parkinson’s disease. Thirty patients with Parkinson’s disease, with a median Hoehn-Yahr stage of 2 (1-4), were compared to 30 age- and gender-matched controls. Retinal thinning and function were measured using optical coherence tomography (OCT), visual evoked potentials (VEP), and pattern electroretinography. Motor impairment and motor laterality were measured using the Short Parkinson’s Evaluation Scale/Scales for Outcomes in Parkinson’s disease, and non-motor symptoms severity using the nonmotor symptoms questionnaire. Only pattern electroretinography, P50 and N95 amplitudes, were lower in patients with Parkinson’s disease, compared to controls (p = 0.01, respectively). Age, disease duration, levodopa dose, motor, and non-motor impairment were not significantly associated with retinal thinning and functional changes. The patients vs. controls area under the curve of OCT, VEP, and pattern electroretinography receiver-operating-characteristic curves were<0.50. In conclusion, morphologic and functional retina changes are not significantly correlated with motor and non-motor symptoms impairment severity, and do not discriminate between Parkinson’s disease and controls.

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Introducción. Aproximadamente un 10% de los pacientes diagnosticados inicialmente de Enfermedad de Parkinson (E.P.), no presentan alteraciones en la vía dopaminérgica nigroestriatal en su vertiente presináptica; se engloban bajo el acrónimo SWEDDs (Scans without evidence of dopaminergic deficit) [1].Objetivo. Revisar aquellos aspectos clínicos que pueden ayudar al diagnóstico diferencial de los SWEDDs, así como las bases del tratamiento.Desarrollo. Las técnicas complementarias empleadas en el diagnóstico de la E.P. como el DAT-SCAN, han favorecido que se establezca un diagnóstico diferencial entre estas dos entidades: E.P. y SWEDDs, cuya evolución, pronóstico y tratamiento será diferente. Conclusiones.El término SWEDDs incluye pacientes con temblor de reposo asimétrico y ausencia de disfunción de la vía dopaminérgica nigroestriatal. En casos dudosos la prueba complementaria a realizar es el DAT-SCAN. La hipótesis de que el temblor en SWEDDs pueda ser una forma de distonía primaria debe ser contrastada en futuros estudios [1]. El tratamiento de los pacientes con SWEDDs se basa en fármacos anticolinérgicos.

Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show a defi cit in processing sentences with psychological verbs. Evidence from English suggests that their comprehension of object Experiencers is more impaired relative to subject Experiencers. Since Spanish is structurally diff erent from English, in the present study we wanted to determine whether Spanish-speaking AD patients would show a diff erent comprehension pattern. We tested comprehension of semantically irreversible sentences involving psych verbs with subject Experiencers, and accusative-and dative-marked object Experiencers in 10 native speakers of Spanish diagnosed with mild to moderate AD. We also tested their comprehension of semantically reversible sentences involving dative object Experiencers in two word orders (SVO, OVS). A paired-samples t-test revealed no statistically signifi cant diff erences in their comprehension of subject vs. object Experiencers, or accusative vs. dative object Experiencers in semantically irreversible sentences, with one-sample t-test indicating comprehension above chance. However, their overall comprehension of psych verbs in semantically reversible sentences was poor, regardless of word order, and it was signifi cantly worse than their comprehension of sentences with action verbs in the same word orders. Th us, our data indicate that the defi cit in comprehension of psych verbs found in Spanish speakers with mild to moderate AD dementia diff ers from the pattern found in English, and that the defi cit in AD patients' comprehension of psych verbs is more heterogeneous than previously thought.