Fear of Falling: An Independent Factor Affecting Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Parkinson's Disease.

BACKGROUND: Fear of falling (FOF) is a serious problem in Idiopathic Parkinson's Disease (IPD) which increases mortality and affects Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL). OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of FOF on HRQoL in IPD. METHODS: 84 controls and 87 IPD patients were compared by means of Fall Efficacy Scale (FES), Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale (ABC Scale), Impact Of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Parkinson Disease Specific Quality of Life Scale (PDQ-39). Then, patients were divided into two subgroups such as patients with FOF (Group 2a) and patients without FOF (Group 2b) by FES. Groups were compared in terms of BBS, ABC Scale, IES-R, BDI, BAI, PDQ-39. Independent factors affecting HRQoL were measured. RESULTS: FOF was higher in IPD patients than controls. Female sex, previous falls, off periods, hallucinations, urge incontinence were significantly higher in Group 2a. However, RBD, dyskinesia, daytime somnolence and FOG were not different in IPD patients whether they have FOF or not. FOF was mostly correlated to disability level and disease severity. In addition, UPDRS and FOF were found to be independent factors affecting HRQoL in IPD. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians should be aware that FOF can be detected in IPD patients, who are female, depressed or anxious, who had more severe disease with off periods, urge incontinence, hallucinations and previous falls. FOF should be questioned in every IPD patients because it is an independent factor which affects HRQoL of IPD patients.

Central Nervous System Vasculitis Due to an Endemic Zoonosis in Turkey; Tularemia.

Tularemia is a bacterial zoonotic disease. The etiologic agent is francisella tularensis which is a gram negative coccobacillus. It is also an epidemic disease in some parts of Turkey. Clinical forms are ulceroglandular or glandular, oculoglandular, oropharyngeal, respiratory, and typhoidal forms. Neurological involvement is rare. It is usually presented with meningitis and encephalitis in literature. Our 42-year-old patient was suspected for demyelinating disease, ischemic cerebrovascular disease and vasculitis because of acute onset of neurological symptoms. She was diagnosed as tularemia during the investigation of her lymphadenitis. No etiologic risk factor was found for cerebrovascular disease, and demyelinating disease was excluded. Digital substraction angiography revealed the narrowing of the cerebral vessels. The lesions were partially regressed with the treatment. However, a new infarction developed with the interruption of treatment. All these findings suggested the diagnosis of central nervous system vasculitis due to francisella tularensis infection. Our case was important as it was the first vasculitic case due to tularemia in the literature.

MNA-SF is not sufficient without questioning protein and fruit-vegetable consumption to detect malnutrition risk in Parkinson's Disease.

Malnutrition risk (MR) prevalence in Parkinson's Disease (PD) is 3-60%. Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA) and MNA-SF are the widely Query used measurements for MR. The aim of this study was to identify if MNA-SF is sufficient to detect MR instead of total MNA in PD. Participants were compared in terms of anthropometric measurements, MNA (total, screening and evaluation), non-motor questionnaire, beck depression inventory, beck anxiety inventory. They were additionally compared according to evaluation part of MNA. All PD patients were divided into two groups as "with MR" and "without MR" according to total MNA scores and comparisons were done again. Then, IPD patients whose MNA-SF scores were normal were divided into another two subgroups as "with MR" and "without MR" according to total MNA scores and compared again. 58.7% PD patients and 28.6% controls were at MR. 32.5% PD patients whose MNA-SF scores were normal were detected as "with MR" by total MNA. MNA-SF had 87.1% sensitivity, 70.5% specificity, 67.5% positive predictive value, 88.6% negative predictive value and 77.3% accuracy in PD. PC and FVC were found to be the most important questions in MR estimation. Total MNA was sufficient to measure MR in PD, however MNA-SF missed many patients who were at MR. PC and FVC should be insistently questioned in addition to MNA-SF to find the accurate results of MR in PD patients, especially in females with higher disease severity and duration.