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Neurotransmitter specificity of sympathetic denervation in Parkinson's disease
1Clinical Neurocardiology Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-1620, USA.
Neurology
|March 26, 2003
Abstract:
In PD, orthostatic hypotension reflects sympathetic noradrenergic denervation. The authors assessed sympathetic cholinergic innervation by the quantitative sudomotor axon reflex test (QSART) in 12 patients who had sympathetic neurocirculatory failure, markedly decreased cardiac 6-[18F] fluorodopamine-derived radioactivity, and subnormal plasma norepinephrine increments during standing. All 12 had normal QSART results. The sympathetic nervous system lesion in PD involves loss of postganglionic catecholaminergic but not cholinergic nerves.