Central conduction abnormalities in patients receiving levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel infusion.

Abstract

In recent years, several studies have reported a relatively high frequency of polyneuropathy in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), in particular, in patients receiving levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel (LCIG) infusion. In spite of the several patients investigated with nerve conduction studies, no study has prospectively explored a possible central nervous system involvement of patients receiving LCIG infusion. We prospectively evaluated eight PD patients receiving LCIG infusion, who underwent neurophysiological evaluations with nerve conduction studies, visual, somatosensory and motor evoked potentials before LCIG infusion, and 1 and 6months after. At 6months follow-up, we found significant reduction in sural nerve SNAP amplitude, increase of central sensory conduction time N22-P40, and increases of central motor conduction time recorded from I dorsal interosseous and tibialis anterior. In PD patients with LCIG infusion, we found a subclinical neurophysiological impairment of both peripheral and central nervous system.