Abstract
Two new studies report increased frequencies of heart valve changes in patients taking pergolide or cabergoline, dopamine agonists used in the treatment of Parkinson disease (PD). A companion piece explains the likely mechanism. Schade and colleagues performed a case-control analysis of information from a database of 11,417 patients with significant exposure to antiparkinsonian drugs during a 17-year interval. They identified 81 cases of newly recognized valvular regurgitation, of which 31 lacked another etiology. The 663 controls (antiparkinsonian-drug users without valve abnormalities) were matched for age, sex, and duration of treatment. Treatment with pergolide for more than 6 months increased the relative risk for valvular heart disease by a factor of 7.1, …
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