Validation of the Hebrew version of the Movement Disorder Society-Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale.

Background: The Movement Disorders Society (MDS) published the English new Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) as the official benchmark scale for Parkinson's disease (PD) in 2008. We aimed to validate the Hebrew version of the MDS-UPDRS, explore its dimensionality and compare it to the original English one.

Methods: The MDS-UPDRS questionnaire was translated to Hebrew and was tested on 389 patients with PD, treated at the Movement Disorders Unit at Tel-Aviv Medical Center.

Two Ethnic Clusters with Huntington Disease in Israel: The Case of Mountain Jews and Karaites.

Background: Worldwide prevalence estimates of Huntington disease (HD) vary widely, with no reliable information regarding the Jewish population in Israel.

Methods: This specialized tertiary single-center cross-sectional study assessed clinical, cognitive, and demographic characteristics of 84 HD patients who were treated at the Movement Disorder Unit of the Tel Aviv Medical Center, Israel.

Results: Our cohort was composed of one-third Ashkenazi Jews, 27% Mountain Jews (Caucasus Jews), 18% Sephardi Jews, and 21% Karaites, with both Mountain Jews and Karaites over-represented compared to their relevant proportion in the population of the state of Israel, which is less than 1%.

The place of the botulinum toxin in the management of multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common disabling chronic disease of the central nervous system among young adults. These patients suffer from variety of symptoms that have a profound affect on their working ability, activities of daily living and general quality of life. Treatment of these symptoms is important in order to relief them and improve daily function and quality of life.