Impact of Duration of Parkinsonism and Antiparkinsonian Drugs on Coagulation Parameters in Patients with Parkinson's Disease.

Background And Objectives: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder involving depletion of dopaminergic neurons. Pathogenetic mechanisms leading to striatonigral degeneration are debatable. Chronic inflammation is proposed as one of the mechanisms. In any disease with underlying inflammation, immune system mediators called cytokines are released, leading to a procoagulant state. Our aim was to study the coagulation parameters in patients with PD and find their correlation with disease duration and antiparkinsonian drugs.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between January 2021 and December 2021 in a tertiary care center. Sixty-eight patients with PD were subcategorized based on disease duration (<5 and ≥5 years), number of antiparkinsonian drugs (one drug and ≥2 drugs), and levodopa equivalent daily dose (LEDD; <350 and ≥350 mg). Hemoglobin (Hb), prothrombin time (PT), fibrinogen, bleeding time, and platelet aggregation study with adenosine diphosphate and collagen were assessed.

Results: In our cohort of 68 patients, 53 were men and 15 were women. Mean disease duration was 5.97 ± 4.37 years. Hb was negatively associated with LEDD ( P = 0.012) and duration of the disease ( P = 0.02). Similarly, PT was negatively associated with disease duration ( P = 0.041) and number of antiparkinsonian drugs ( P = 0.03). LEDD showed a positive association with collagen-induced platelet aggregation ( P = 0.03).

Conclusions: In our study, patients using multiple antiparkinsonian drugs and higher LEDD were observed to have a prothrombotic state. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings.