Dizziness inPparkinson's may be due to cerebral hypoperfusion

(HealthDay)—Cerebral hypoperfusion contributes to dizziness in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), even without orthostatic hypotension (OH), according to a study published online April 12 in the Journal of Clinical Ultrasound.

Jinse Park, M.D., from Inje University in Busan, South Korea, and colleagues conducted transcranial Doppler and blood pressure monitoring for 10 minutes during the head-up tilt test in PD patients with dizziness and OH (22 patients; group 1), PD patients with dizziness but no OH (23; group 2), PD patients without dizziness (11; group 3), and age-matched healthy controls (10; group 4).

The researchers found that group 1 showed a significantly higher change in mean blood pressure within three minutes after head-up tilting, compared to the other groups (P < 0.001). However, groups 3 and 4 showed a significantly smaller change in cerebral blood flow velocity in the middle cerebral artery than groups 1 and 2 (P < 0.01).

"Transcranial Doppler monitoring during head-up tilting may be a useful tool for evaluating dizziness in PD patients with or without OH," the authors write.