SPOTLIGHT PLACED ON PUTAMEN PUZZLE IN PARKINSON AND PURE AUTONOMIC FAILURE June 2008

CHICAGO-Patients with pure autonomic failure (PAF) may lose as many dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra as do people with Parkinson disease (PD), a new study presented here in April at the AAN annual meeting suggests.
The investigators combined PET scanning with CSF catechol measurements in more than two dozen patients and two postmortem samples, finding that PAF patients lost as many dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra as patients with PD, yet somehow managed to retain normal dopamine activity in the putamen.
A leading dysautonomia researcher characterized the findings as surprising, difficult to understand, and in need of confirmation by others.
Where is the dopamine in the putamen coming from? asked Horacio Kaufmann, MD, professor of neurology, medicine, and pediatrics and the F. B. Axelrod Professor of Dysautonomia Research at New York University School of Medicine.
In an interview with Neurology Today, the lead author of the study conceded that his findings are puzzling, and admitted .......


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