The Relationship Between the Type of Parkinson’s Disease and Entrapment Neuropathy in the Upper Extremities

Abstract

Objective: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the common neurodegenerative disorders in the community. Compressive neuropathy (CN) is one of the conditions that negatively affect workforce and decreases the quality of life. We aimed to investigate the effect of repetitive mechanical movement on tremor dominant (TD) or akinetic-rigid syndrome (ARS) PD and CNs, particularly, the relationship between CN and two types of PD. In addition, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between CNs and the affected side at the onset and during the disease in both types of PD. Materials and Methods: Patients with PD who presented to our clinic from October 2017 to September 2018 were enrolled in the study. All patients who underwent electromyography to investigate CN were included in the study. The Padua classification was used in the carpal tunnel and cubital tunnel syndrome and electrophysiological findings were classified according to age and gender. According to the disease duration, patients were compared within the two groups as less than 3 years and ≥3 years. Patients were examined in two groups according to the TD and ARS type of PD and initially affected side. Results: A total of 71 patients suffering from PD were enrolled in the study, wherein 57 (80.3%) were TD, and 14 were (19.7%) ARS. An increased risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome (CaTS) was found in the TD group with a disease duration of ≥3 years (p=0.026). Conclusion: No relationship was found between the two different types of PD or the affected side and the type of CN. However, the risk of CaTS increased in TD PD over the 3 years.

Keywords

• parkinson disease
• compressive neuropathies
• carpal tunnel syndrome
• cubital tunnel syndrome
• akinetic-rigid and tremor-dominant parkinsonism