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Prevalence of stroke in Parkinson's disease: a postmortem study
Frank L Mastaglia1, Russell D Johnsen, Byron A Kakulas
1Centre for Neuromuscular and Neurological Disorders, Australian Neuromuscular Research Institute, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia. flmast@cyllene.uwa.edu.au
Abstract:
The results of previous epidemiological studies of the relationship between Parkinson's disease and stroke have been conflicting; some showing a reduced risk of ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke during life, and others indicating an increased likelihood of stroke-related death. We compared the frequency of cerebral infarcts and haemorrhages at postmortem in 100 cases of pathologically verified idiopathic Parkinson's disease and 100 age-matched control brains. No significant differences were found in the numbers of infarcts or haemorrhages or stroke-related deaths between the two groups. Our findings do not indicate either a protective effect against stroke, or a greater susceptibility to death from stroke, in the population studied.