Association of Serum Homocysteine Level with Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic, progressive neurodegenerative disease with unknown etiology. Some previous studies suggest that elevated serum homocysteine level is a risk factor for stroke, ischemic heart disease; atherosclerosis and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's disease. Serum homocysteine level relates with Parkinson's disease through various mechanisms including gene defect, apoptosis, oxidative stress and DNA damage. Some recent studies reveal that serum homocysteine level is elevated in Parkinson's disease patient compared to healthy individuals. This study was aimed to compare the serum homocysteine level in Parkinson's disease patients and age and sex matched apparently healthy individuals. This was a case control study which was conducted in Department of Neurology and Medicine, Mymensingh Medical College Hospital, Mymensingh during November 2019 to April 2021. Total 55 cases of Parkinson's disease patients and age and sex matched 55 apparently healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Demographics and clinical data were collected using structured case record form and adopting purposive type of sampling method. Serum homocysteine level was measured in both case and control groups. The study reveals that, average age of the patients and control group was in sixth decade. Male predominance was found with male to female ratio was 1.5:1 in case group. Both groups showed almost similar demographic profiles. Twenty-nine (52.72%) patients of Parkinson's disease observed higher serum homocysteine level in contrast to only 8(14.54%) in control group. The mean serum homocysteine ±SD was 15.43±6.04μmol/L in case group and 10.04±5.31μmol/L in control group; the difference was statistically significant (p=0.001). Mean serum homocysteine levels were measured progressively higher with increased duration and advanced stages of disease. It was concluded that, serum homocysteine level is higher in Parkinson's disease patients than normal healthy individuals. In addition, there was significant positive correlation of elevated serum homocysteine with increased duration of Parkinson's disease and advanced stages of the disease.