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  • Title: [Approaches to the study of dopamine metabolism in various extrapyramidal diseases].
    Author: Barkhatova VP, Kandel' EI, Demina EG.
    Journal: Zh Nevropatol Psikhiatr Im S S Korsakova; 1981; 81(7):1021-9. PubMed ID: 6457476.
    Abstract:
    The authors present the results of examining the content of 4-hydroxy-3-methoxy-phenylacetic or homovanillic acid (the principal end metabolite of dopamine) in the ventricular fluid of patients suffering from various extrapyramidal diseases. A considerable lowering of the homovanillic acid (HVA) concentration is demonstrated in patients with parkinsonism: this reflects the degeneration of the dopamine-containing pathways and the lowering of the dopamine synthesis in the basal ganglia in that disease. The treatment with L-DOPA leads to a considerable rise of the HVA level in the ventricular fluid, the fact, that points to an intensification of dopamine metabolism in the brain, when its precursor, i.e. L-DOPA is given to the patients. In patients with deforming muscular dystonia, statistically significant differences of the HVA concentration in the cerebrospinal fluid were noted. These differences correlated with the clinical manifestations of the disease. The concentration was found to be much higher in patients with local muscular rigidity, than in those in whose clinical picture the dystonic hyperkinesis was prevalent. It is concluded that in phenotypically different forms of the deforming muscular dystonia the character of the pathology of the central dopaminergic system is also different. Patients with Huntington's chorea showed a low level of the HVA in the intraventricular fluid. It is supposed that this is an evidence of either a fall of the dopamine total content in the brain because of the degeneration of the respective neurons, or of a deterioration of cerebral dopamine catabolism because of enzymatic insufficiency. The data obtained are of importance for understanding the pathogenesis, and for developing methods of treating extrapyramidal motor disturbances.
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