Journal of Alzheimers Disease & Parkinsonism
Open Access

Research Article

Orthostatic Hypotension and its Relationship to the Clinical Course of Patients with Parkinson's Disease

Carlos Henrique Ferreira Camargo^1*, Henrique Alvaro Hoffmann¹, JissaJeanete Luciano¹, Marcelo Rezende Young Blood¹, Marcelo Derbli Schafranski¹, Marcelo Machado Ferro² and EdmarMyochi²

¹Department of Medicine, State University of Ponta Grossa, Neurology Service, Hospital Universitário, Brazil

²Neuropsychopharmacology Laboratory, State University of Ponta Grossa, Brazil

Corresponding Author:

Carlos Henrique Ferreira Camargo
Departamento de Medicina – UEPG
Rua Carlos Cavalcanti, 4748 Uvaranas
84030-900, Ponta Grossa-PR, Brazil
Tel: 554230262627
Fax: 554230262627
E-mail: chcamargo@uol.com.br

Received date: May 31, 2014; Accepted date: August 08, 2014; Published date: August 25, 2014

Citation: Camargo CHF, Hoffmann HA, Luciano J, Blood MRY, Schafranski MD, et al. (2014) Orthostatic Hypotension and its Relationship to the Clinical Course of Patients with Parkinson’s Disease. J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism 4:155. doi:10.4172/2161-0460.1000155

Copyright: © 2014 Camargo CHF, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify possible clinical variables associated with orthostatic hypotension (OH) in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Methods: The study was an analytical observational case-control one.Twenty patients were selected and divided into two groups: patients with Parkinson’s disease and OH, and patients with Parkinson’s disease without OH. The groups were compared in terms of parameters such as age, age of onset of symptoms, duration of levodopa use, duration of the disease before levodopa was started, comorbidities and other medications being used. A two- tailed chi-square test with Yates’ correction was used for categorical variables, and the Student’s t-test for continuous variables. Results: There was a statistically significant association between the development of OH and both greater age and late onset of Parkinson’s disease. Patients in the group with OH were older on average (76.11 ± 9.41 vs 65.9 ± 11.03; p = 0.04 and Cohen’s d = 0.99) and had later disease onset (71.44 ± 8.07 vs 60.9 ± 12.87; p = 0.04 and Cohen’s d = 0.98). The correlations between the other clinical and therapeutic characteristics and OH was not statistically significant. Conclusion: Our findings show that OH is more likely to affect older patients and those with later onset of Parkinson’s disease.

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