What are atypical Parkinsonian disorders?
Atypical Parkinsonian disorders are progressive diseases that present with some of the signs and symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, but that generally do not respond well to drug treatment with levodopa. They are associated with abnormal protein buildup within brain cells.
The term refers to several conditions, each affecting particular parts of the brain and showing a characteristic course:
- Dementia with Lewy bodies,characterized by an abnormal accumulation of alpha-synuclein protein in brain cells (“synucleinopathy”)
- Progressive supranuclear palsy, involving tau protein buildup (“tauopathy”) affecting the frontal lobes, brainstem, cerebellum and substantia nigra
- Multiple system atrophy,another synucleinopathy that affects the autonomic nervous system (the part of the nervous system that controls internal functions such as heartbeat, blood pressure, urination digestion), substantia nigra and at times the cerebellum
- Corticobasal syndrome,a rare tauopathy that typically affects one side of the body more than the other and makes…
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