This is an article posted to the website of NYU’s Dysautonomia Center (dysautonomiacenter.com). One of their lead researchers, Dr. Horacio Kaufmann, is active in multiple system atrophy (MSA) studies. In the post, Dr. Kaufmann’s eight-year multi-center study of orthostatic hypotension is described. The study was recently published in the Annals of Neurology.
Here’s a link to the post:
Low blood pressure standing may hold the key to detecting pre-motor MSA
By Dysautonomia Center NYU
February 22, 2017
The researchers discovered the predictors of MSA:
“In a patient with orthostatic hypotension, REM sleep behavior disorder, intact smell and signs that the autonomic nerves outside the brain are mostly spared are key features that suggest an increased risk of developing MSA.”
By “signs that the autonomic nerves outside the brain are mostly spared,” the researchers are referring to “the fact that Parkinson disease destroys the autonomic nerves outside the brain around the heart.” The researchers noted that “patients that went on to develop MSA had faster heart rates that those that were later diagnosed with Parkinson disease.”
The full article is worth reading.
Robin