Impaired self-awareness of motor deficits in Parkinson's disease: association with motor asymmetry and motor phenotypes.

Background: This study investigated impaired self-awareness of motor deficits in nondemented, nondepressed Parkinson's disease (PD) patients during a defined clinical on state.

Methods: Twenty-eight PD patients were examined. Patients' self-ratings and experts' ratings of patients' motor performance were compared.

A U.S. survey of patients with Parkinson's disease: satisfaction with medical care and support groups.

Relatively little is known about patient satisfaction with Parkinson's disease (PD) care and the use of support groups in the United States. We surveyed members of the Muhammad Ali Parkinson's Disease Registry to assess satisfaction with medical care and to evaluate support group use. Satisfaction was measured on a 5-point Likert scale, with high satisfaction defined as a four or five.

The calcium-modulated structures of calmodulin and S100b proteins are useful to monitor hydrogen/deuterium exchange efficiency using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

Hydrogen/deuterium exchange (HDX) using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF) is a sensitive, salt-tolerant and high-throughput method useful to probe protein conformation and molecular interactions. However, a drawback of the MALDI HDX technique is that sample preparation methods can typically result in higher levels of artificial deuterium in-exchange and/or hydrogen back- exchange just prior to or during mass analysis; this may impair data reproducibility and impede structural and kinetic data interpretation. While methods to minimize effects of back-exchange during protein analyte deposition on MALDI plates have been reported, this study presents a readily available, highly sensitive protein control set to facilitate rapid MALDI HDX protocol workup.

Biomechanic characteristics of patients with spastic and dystonic hypertonia in cerebral palsy.

Objective: To determine what biomechanic characteristics of knee joint motion and walking show potential to quantitatively differentiate spasticity and dystonia in cerebral palsy (CP).

Design: Descriptive measurement study.

Setting: University hospital.