Validation of the Thai Version of the Movement Disorder Society-Sponsored Revision of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale.

Objective: This study aims to validate the Thai translation of the Movement Disorder Society-sponsored revision of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS).

Methods: The English version was translated into Thai and then back-translated into English. The translated version underwent 2 rounds of cognitive pretesting to assess the ease of comprehension, ease of use and comfort with the scale.

Establishing apomorphine treatment in Thailand: understanding the challenges and opportunities of Parkinson's disease management in developing countries.

Introduction: The increasing global burden of Parkinson's disease (PD) poses a particular challenge for developing countries, such as Thailand, when delivering care to a geographically diverse populace with limited resources, often compounded by a lack of expertise in the use of certain PD medications, such as device-aided therapies (DAT).

Areas Covered: A panel of local, regional, and international PD experts convened to review the unmet needs of PD in Thailand and share insights into effective delivery of DAT, focusing on experience with apomorphine infusion. Despite its proven efficacy and safety, implementation of apomorphine infusion as a new option was not straightforward.

Development of normative neuropsychological performance in Thailand for the assessment of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders.

International studies of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) are needed to determine the viral and host factors associated with cognitive impairment particularly as more than 80% of HIV+ subjects reside in resource-limited settings. Recent diagnostic nomenclature of HAND requires comparison of cognitive performance specifically to local normative data. To evaluate this need for local norms, we compared normative data obtained locally in Thailand to Western norms.

Orthostatic hypotension: a non-motor complication assessment in 82 patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease in Phramongkutklao Hospital.

Objective: Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the neurogenic etiologies of orthostatic hypotension, a non-motor symptoms complex, that tends to be under-recognized and under-treated leading to a major cause of disability for PD patients. This complication is associated with one or recurrent falls causing mortality and morbidity. To the authors' knowledge, there is no study about this condition in Thai PD population.

An outbreak of botulism in Thailand: clinical manifestations and management of severe respiratory failure.

Background: Northern Thailand's biggest botulism outbreak to date occurred on 14 March 2006 and affected 209 people. Of these, 42 developed respiratory failure, and 25 of those who developed respiratory failure were referred to 9 high facility hospitals for treatment of severe respiratory failure and autonomic nervous system involvement. Among these patients, we aimed to assess the relationship between the rate of ventilator dependence and the occurrence of treatment by day 4 versus day 6 after exposure to bamboo shoots (the source of the botulism outbreak), as well as the relationship between ventilator dependence and negative inspiratory pressure.