NURS-3084EL Lecture Notes - Substantia Nigra, Striatum, Neurodegeneration
Document Summary
A slowly progressive and neurodegenerative disease of the basal ganglia. Prevalence: common second most common neurodegenerative disease, affects 55,000 canadians >18 years of age, may appear at any age, but is rare in people less than 30. Risk increases with age: strikes 1 out of every 100 people over age 60, more commonly affects men. Affects the extrapyramidal system corpus striatum, globus pallidus, substantia nigra which influences the initiation, modulation, and completion of movement. Lewy bodies (eosinophilic cytoplasmic inclusions) may be found in surviving neurons possible link with. Pathogenesis: number of genes identified as having role in development, high caffeine intake inversely related to risk of development, whatever the cause: 75-80% of neurons have died before symptoms appear. May become severely dysarthric: oculogyric crises (eyes fixed upward with involuntary tonic movements), occasionally blepharospasm. Motor symptoms: dyskinesias (spontaneous involuntary), weakness, akinesia (total immobility) General debilitation may lead to pneumonia, utis, skin breakdown.
