ABSTRACT
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a late onset, progressive, neurodegenerative, movement disorder affecting more than 2% of the population over the age of 65 years. Clinical symptoms of PD consist of resting tremor, muscular rigidity, bradykinesia, and abnormal postural reflexes (1). The pathologic hallmark of PD is the progressive degeneration of the nigrostriatal pathway and dopaminergic cells of the substantia nigra (2) though recent neuropathologic studies suggest a more extended neuronal degeneration starting in the medulla oblongata that later spreads to the midbrain and cerebral cortex (3). Nevertheless it is the degeneration of the nigrostriatal pathway and subsequent dopamine deficiency in striatum that is believed to underlie many of the clinical manifestations of PD (4-8).
