Recent Advances in Parkinson's Disease.

Abstract

This is an admirable collection of review articles, another in the splendid Contemporary Neurology Series edited by Plum and McDowell. The volume goes far beyond its title. Parkinson disease, today treated effectively and fairly routinely with levodopa, has been restudied. This is due in part to the new fields opened up by the use of this dopamine precursor, the unexpected essential role of this neurotransmitter, and in part by the slow passage of that special group of patients with Parkinson disease in whom encephalitis was the cause. Forno and Alvord find on close examination that several microscopically distinguishable features separate that category known as idiopathic parkinsonism, including the presence and distribution of Lewy bodies, Alzheimer tangles, and senile plaques. Poirier describes at length animal models for anatomic study of the disease. But the most remarkable aspects of the book are sections written by Carlsson and Hornykiewicz. These have to do