Living with chronic illness scale: international validation of a new self-report measure in Parkinson's disease

Understanding how a person lives with a chronic illness, such as Parkinson's disease (PD), is necessary to provide individualized care and professionals role in person-centered care at clinical and community levels is paramount. The present study was aimed to analyze the psychometric properties of the Living with Chronic Illness-PD Scale (EC-PC) in a wide Spanish-speaking population with PD. International cross-sectional study with retest was carried out with 324 patients from four Latin American countries and Spain. Feasibility, acceptability, scaling assumptions, reliability, precision, and construct validity were tested. The study included 324 patients, with age (mean±s.d.) 66.67±10.68 years. None of the EC-PC items had missing values and all acceptability parameters fulfilled the standard criteria. Around two-third of the items (61.54%) met scaling assumptions standards. Concerning internal consistency, Cronbach's alpha values were 0.68-0.88; item-total correlation was >0.30, except for two items; item homogeneity index was >0.30, and inter-item correlation values 0.14-0.76. Intraclass correlation coefficient for EC-PC stability was 0.76 and standard error of measurement (s.e.m.) for precision was 8.60 (for a EC-PC s.d.=18.57). EC-PC presented strong correlation with social support (rS=0.61) and moderate correlation with life satisfaction (rS=0.46). Weak and negligible correlations were found with the other scales. Internal validity correlations ranged from 0.46 to 0.78. EC-PC total scores were significantly different for each severity level based on Hoehn and Yahr and Clinical Impression of Severity Index, but not for Patient Global Impression of Severity. The EC-PC has satisfactory acceptability, reliability, precision, and validity to evaluate living with PD.S

Living with chronic illness scale: international validation of a new self-report measure in Parkinson’s disease

Understanding how a person lives with a chronic illness, such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), is necessary to provide individualized care and professionals role in person-centered care at clinical and community levels is paramount. The present study was aimed to analyze the psychometric properties of the Living with Chronic Illness-PD Scale (EC-PC) in a wide Spanish-speaking population with PD. International cross-sectional study with retest was carried out with 324 patients from four Latin American countries and Spain. Feasibility, acceptability, scaling assumptions, reliability, precision, and construct validity were tested. The study included 324 patients, with age (mean±s.d.) 66.67±10.68 years. None of the EC-PC items had missing values and all acceptability parameters fulfilled the standard criteria. Around two-third of the items (61.54%) met scaling assumptions standards. Concerning internal consistency, Cronbach’s alpha values were 0.68–0.88; item-total correlation was >0.30, except for two items; item homogeneity index was >0.30, and inter-item correlation values 0.14–0.76. Intraclass correlation coefficient for EC-PC stability was 0.76 and standard error of measurement (s.e.m.) for precision was 8.60 (for a EC-PC s.d.=18.57). EC-PC presented strong correlation with social support (rS=0.61) and moderate correlation with life satisfaction (rS=0.46). Weak and negligible correlations were found with the other scales. Internal validity correlations ranged from 0.46 to 0.78. EC-PC total scores were significantly different for each severity level based on Hoehn and Yahr and Clinical Impression of Severity Index, but not for Patient Global Impression of Severity. The EC-PC has satisfactory acceptability, reliability, precision, and validity to evaluate living with PD

El factor de activación plaquetaria y su relación con el daño oxidativo

El factor de activación plaquetaria es un fosfolípido de síntesis endógena relacionado directamente con diversos procesos como isquemia, necrosis, trombosis y otros. El principal blanco de sus efectos deletéreos se encuentra en las células endoteliales, leucocitos y plaquetas, donde provoca graves perturbaciones mecánicas, reológicas y bioquímicas en la unidad circulatoria. Se realizó una revisión bibliográfica del factor de activación plaquetaria, su síntesis endógena, sus funciones biológicas, con especial énfasis en su relación con el daño oxidativo, así como los principales antagonistas conocidos. Se enfatizó el efecto de los ginkgólidos contenidos en el EGB 761 (extracto de Ginkgo biloba) y su aplicación en la clínica de diversos procesos patológicos relacionados con la circulación cerebral y periféricaThe platelet activating factor is an endogenous synthesis phospholipid directly linked to a series of processes such as ischemia, necrosis, thrombosis and others. The main target of its deleterous effects is found in endotelial cells, leukocytes and platelets whereas it causes serious mechanical, reologic and biochemical disturbances in the circulation unit. A literature review was made on plaletet-activating factor, its endogenous synthesis, biological functions with special emphasis on the relation of this factor with oxidative damage and the main known antagonists. The effect of ginkgolids contained in EGB 761 (Ginkgo biloba extract) and their application for treating several pathological processes related to brain and peripheral circulation were emphazide

Beyond shallow feelings of complex affect: Non-motor correlates of subjective emotional experience in Parkinson's disease.

Affective disorders in Parkinson's disease (PD) concern several components of emotion. However, research on subjective feeling in PD is scarce and has produced overall varying results. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to evaluate the subjective emotional experience and its relationship with autonomic symptoms and other non-motor features in PD patients. We used a battery of film excerpts to elicit Amusement, Anger, Disgust, Fear, Sadness, Tenderness, and Neutral State, in 28 PD patients and 17 healthy controls. Self-report scores of emotion category, intensity, and valence were analyzed. In the PD group, we explored the association between emotional self-reported scores and clinical scales assessing autonomic dysregulation, depression, REM sleep behavior disorder, and cognitive impairment. Patient clustering was assessed by considering relevant associations. Tenderness occurrence and intensity of Tenderness and Amusement were reduced in the PD patients. Tenderness occurrence was mainly associated with the overall cognitive status and the prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms. In contrast, the intensity and valence reported for the experience of Amusement correlated with the prevalence of urinary symptoms. We identified five patient clusters, which differed significantly in their profile of non-motor symptoms and subjective feeling. Our findings further suggest the possible existence of a PD phenotype with more significant changes in subjective emotional experience. We concluded that the subjective experience of complex emotions is impaired in PD. Non-motor feature grouping suggests the existence of disease phenotypes profiled according to specific deficits in subjective emotional experience, with potential clinical implications for the adoption of precision medicine in PD. Further research on larger sample sizes, combining subjective and physiological measures of emotion with additional clinical features, is needed to extend our findings

Living with chronic illness scale in Parkinson's disease: longitudinal metric properties and meaningful change

Aim: To analyze the responsiveness and interpretability of the Living with Chronic Illness Scale in patients with Parkinson's disease (LW-CI-PD). Methods: Longitudinal, international study, with a convenience sample of 153 PD Spanish and Latin-American patients assessed at baseline and one year later. The LW-CI-PD and other clinical measures were applied. For responsiveness, Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test of differences, correlation of change between rating scales, standard error of difference, relative change, Cohen's effect size and standardized response mean of LW-CI-PD were computed. The minimally clinical important difference was calculated using anchor- (applying the Patient Global Impression of Severity) and distribution-based methods. A triangulation of interpretability indexes was performed to determine the range of the minimally clinical important difference values. Results: The LW-CI-PD scored 65.7 (11.7, range: 33–101) at baseline, and 68.6 (10.3, range: 33–102) one year later (p &lt; 0.001). Change in LW-CI-PD correlated −0.26 with change in psychosocial status, 0.18 with change in motor function and −0.15 with change in social support. Responsiveness statistics were: relative change = 4.5%; effect size = 0.25; standardized response mean = 0.46. Using PGI-S as anchor, 29 patients worsened, and the value of minimally clinical important difference for worsening in LW-CI-PD total score was 4.7. Minimally clinical important difference values using distribution-based methods were between 4.5 (1 standard error of measurement) and 10.4 (10% of total score), with a mean of 6.9. Conclusions: Our study suggest the LW-CI-PD is responsive to changes over time. The use of different methods for calculating the minimally clinical important difference allows to determine a range of the real change for the LW-CI-PD.</p

EEG-Derived Functional Connectivity Patterns Associated with Mild Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson’s Disease

Objective: To evaluate EEG-derived functional connectivity (FC) patterns associated with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in Parkinson’s disease (PD). METHODS: A sample of 15 patients without cognitive impairment (PD-WCI), 15 with MCI (PD-MCI), and 26 healthy subjects were studied. The EEG was performed in the waking functional state with eyes closed, for the functional analysis it was used the synchronization likelihood (SL) and graph theory (GT). RESULTS: PD-MCI patients showed decreased FC in frequencies alpha, in posterior regions, and delta with a generalized distribution. Patients, compared to the healthy people, presented a decrease in segregation (lower clustering coefficient in alpha p = 0.003 in PD-MCI patients) and increased integration (shorter mean path length in delta (p = 0.004) and theta (p = 0.002) in PD-MCI patients). There were no significant differences in the network topology between the parkinsonian groups. In PD-MCI patients, executive dysfunction correlated positively with global connectivity in beta (r = 0.47) and negatively with the mean path length at beta (r = −0.45); alterations in working memory were negatively correlated with the mean path length at beta r = −0.45. CONCLUSIONS: PD patients present alterations in the FC in all frequencies, those with MCI show less connectivity in the alpha and delta frequencies. The neural networks of the patients show a random topology, with a similar organization between patients with and without MCI. In PD-MCI patients, alterations in executive function and working memory are related to beta integration

Satisfaction with life scale (SLS-6): first validation study in Parkinson's disease population

Introduction: To explore the psychometric attributes of a new Satisfaction with Life Scale (SLS-6) in a wide Spanish-speaking population with Parkinson's disease (PD).Methods: This was an international, cross-sectional study. Several rater-based and patient-reported outcomes measures for evaluation of PD (e.g., Scales for Outcomes in Parkinson's Disease-Motor) and other constructs (e.g., Duke-UNC Functional Social Support Questionnaire, Scale for Living with Chronic Illness) were applied together with the SLS-6. Acceptability, scaling assumptions, reliability, precision, and construct validity were tested.Results: The study included 324 patients from five countries, with age (mean ± standard deviation) 66.67 ± 10.68 years. None of the SLS-6 items had missing values and all acceptability parameters fulfilled the standard criteria. Scaling assumptions allowed the calculation of a summary index from items 2 to 6, complementary to the global evaluation (item 1). For these five items, Cronbach's alpha was 0.85; the corrected item–total correlation 0.53–0.73; inter-item correlation, 0.45–0.70, with an item homogeneity index of 0.55. The standard error of measurement, based on Cronbach's alpha for a single observation, was 3.48. SLS-6 correlations were moderate to strong (rs ? 0.35) with the patient-reported outcomes and weak to moderate with the rater-based assessments used in the study. The SLS-6 total score was significantly different according to PD severity levels established according to Hoehn and Yahr staging, Clinical Impression of Severity Index, and Patient-Based Global Impression of Severity scale.Conclusion: The results suggest that SLS-6 is an easy, feasible, acceptable, consistent, precise and valid measure to evaluate satisfaction with life in PD patients