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Patients
with advanced Parkinson's disease who undergo a fetal cell
transplant can experience improvement in their symptoms for
a number of years afterwards regardless of their age, according
to researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine
in Denver.
Researchers
looked at 32 patients with advanced Parkinson's disease who
received fetal dopamine cells implanted into their brains.
The transplants duplicated the effects of the drug levodopa
that the patients were taking prior to the procedure.
"The
results were directly proportionate to the results people
had with levodopa before the transplant," said Dr. Curt
Freed, co-author of the study. "At best, the transplants
could improve symptoms equal to the best response to levodopa
previously. And conversely, some people who had problems with
jerky, involuntary movements as a side effect from levodopa
continued to have those problems after the transplant."
Researchers
followed the patients for up to 5.5 years after their transplant
and found those who had shown a good response to levodopa
prior to the transplant also showed significant improvement
after the transplant regardless of their age, according to
the study presented at the annual meeting of the American
Academy of Neurology held in Denver.
"We
had earlier reported that the transplants showed improvements
for younger patients only," said Freed. "We have
since determined that the improvements are related not to
the individual's age, but to how well the individual responded
to levodopa before the transplant."
PET scans
revealed that after one year, patients had an increase in
dopamine activity in the area of the brain that received the
implants. Over the next three years, the amount of dopamine
activity stabilized or increased, reported Freed.
Source:
Medical Week staff,
week of April 28, 2002
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