Parkinson’s Disease is a degenerative movement disorder resulting from the death of the dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra.
There aren’t any definitive blood tests or imaging for Parkinson’s, so it really comes down to a solid neurological examination.
Generally bradykinesia (slow movement) plus one of the other two cardinal signs
- Rigidity (cogwheel)
- Tremor (pill rolling)
The other movement signs seen in Parkinson’s
- Shuffling gait
- Mask-like expression
- Postural instability: this is tested with the “pull test” – the examiner stands behind the patient and firmly pulls the patient by the shoulders. Someone with normal postural reflexes should only need to take one step back, someone with postural instability will fall or need to take multiple steps backwards.
Awesome website! I am going to use your parkinson’s sketch in a lecture for a nuclear medicine meeting, I will be sure to include you in my references!
That’s awesome! I’m thinking of starting a gallery of photos of lectures/talks where people have used my images if you don’t mind sending a photo along!
would love to see a sketch to teach the dopaminergic pathways in the brain involved with parkinson’s and how common drugs- reglan, compazine, haldol make parkinson’s worse
Your images are wonderful and a really good way to learn and remember things, I wish I’d discovered this site earlier!
I love this image– it’s perfect for an assignment I’m doing on Hypokinetic Dysarthria and PD. Is there anyway to get it without the watermark? I would certainly cite you within my project!