Small (autonomic) and large fiber neuropathy in Parkinson disease and parkinsonism.

Background: Recent studies have reported that peripheral neuropathy (PN) is common in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and raised the possibility that levodopa neurotoxicity is the main culprit.

Methods: We evaluated the presence of large & small (autonomic) fiber PN in 54 consecutive patients with PD or parkinsonism in a tertiary outpatient clinic from Brazil. Initial PN screening consisted of history/neurological exam and skin wrinkling test (SWT).

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7): family princeps history, genealogy and geographical distribution.

We conducted a 320 year retrospective survey of the history and genealogy of a large Brazilian family with SCA7. The ancestral couple was from the State of Ceará, Brazil, and the genealogical tree was composed of 577 individuals, including 217 males (37.6%), 255 females (44.