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Subtypes of Parkinson’s Disease: What Do They Tell Us About Disease Progression?

  • Movement Disorders (S Fox, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Parkinson’s disease is a widely heterogeneous disorder with a broad list of motor and nonmotor manifestations. Identifying subtypes of Parkinson’s disease is one of the top clinical and research priorities. This review aims to summarize the most valid conventional and recent subtyping solutions that have been introduced so far and to update our current knowledge with recent discoveries on the association between subtypes and disease progression. We also discuss the challenges of subtyping in the context of Parkinson’s disease, stability of the subtypes over time, and potential clinical implications. Sophisticated evidence show that there are distinct subtypes of Parkinson’s disease with diverging trends of progression. A more holistic view of subtyping to merge traditional motor features with key nonmotor manifestations is a promising approach to identify subgroups with different prognosis. Subtyping could improve further by adding continuing to add data from imaging, CSF, and genetic biomarkers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Seyed-Mohammad Fereshtehnejad & Ronald B. Postuma

  2. Division of Clinical Geriatrics, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (NVS), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Seyed-Mohammad Fereshtehnejad

  3. Centre for Advanced Research in Sleep Medicine, Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Ronald B. Postuma

  4. Department of Neurology, L7-305 Montreal General Hospital, 1650 Cedar Avenue, Montreal, QC, H3G 1A4, Canada

    Ronald B. Postuma

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  1. Seyed-Mohammad Fereshtehnejad
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Correspondence to Ronald B. Postuma.

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Seyed-Mohammad Fereshtehnejad declares no conflict of interest.

Ronald B. Postuma reports grants from Fonds de la Recherche en Sante, Canadian Institute of Health Research, The Parkinson Society of Canada, Weston-Garfield Foundation, Michael J. Fox Foundation, and Webster Foundation and reports personal fees from Fonds de la Recherche en Sante, Biotie, Roche/Prothena, Teva Neurosciences, Novartis Canada, Biogen, and Boehringer Ingelheim.

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Fereshtehnejad, SM., Postuma, R.B. Subtypes of Parkinson’s Disease: What Do They Tell Us About Disease Progression?. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep 17, 34 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11910-017-0738-x

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