Serum Homocysteine Level in Parkinson's Disease and Its Association with Duration, Cardinal Manifestation, and Severity of Disease

Abstract

Background and purpose: Due to the high prevalence of Parkinson's disease (PD) in the elderly, a large financial burden is imposed on the families and health systems of countries in addition to the problems related to the mobility impairment caused by the disease for the patients. Studies on controversial issues in this disease are taken into consideration, and one of these cases is the role of serum homocysteine level in Parkinson's patients. In this study, the serum level of homocysteine and its association with various variables in relation to this disease was compared with healthy individuals.

Materials and methods: In this study, 100 patients with PD and 100 healthy individuals as control group were investigated. Serum homocysteine level and demographic and clinical data were included in the checklist. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 23. In all tests, the significance level was below 0.05.

Results: The mean level of serum homocysteine in case and control groups was 14.93 ± 8.30 and 11.52 ± 2.86 µmol/L, respectively (95% CI: 1.68; 5.14, P < 0.001). In total patients, 85 had normal serum homocysteine level, while 15 had high serum homocysteine level. In controls, the homocysteine level was 98 and 2, respectively (P=0.002). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, serum homocysteine level higher than 20 µmol/L was accompanied by 8.64-fold in Parkinson's disease involvement (95% CI: 1.92; 38.90, P=0.005).

Conclusion: Increasing serum homocysteine level elevates the rate to having PD. Serum homocysteine levels did not have any relationship with the duration of the disease, type of cardinal manifestation, and the severity of Parkinson's disease.