White matter lesions and Parkinson disease / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

White matter lesions (WMLs) are the extensive damage of periventricular and subcortical white matter caused by different etiology.Previous studies have shown that WMLs is associated with cognitive function, motor function, mood and urination function.Parkinson disease (PD) is a common chronic degenerative disease of the central nervous system.Recently, evidences showed that PD patients have a high susceptibility to WMLs which participates in the progression of motor and cognitive impairment.PD patients have higher risk of WMLs because of cardiovascular autonomic nerve dysfunction, long-term dopamine (DA) treatment and β-amyloid peptides (Aβ) deposition along vessels.Furthermore, recently, more and more evidences showed that WMLs could impact on the motor and cognitive symptoms of PD.WMLs had a significant influence on axial motor symptoms, and was related to executive function, attention, memory, visual-spatial ability and other cognitive impairment.Moreover, the severity of WMLs affects drug and surgical efficacy of patients with PD.Taking active measures to slacken the WMLs progression of PD will contribute to improve symptoms and curative effect.This article summarized the roles of WMLs in the occurrence and development of PD, in order to provide theoretical basis for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of PD.