New treatment improves symptoms of Parkinson's disease

Patients with advanced Parkinson's disease have shown dramatic improvements in the preliminary results of a small pilot study of a technique whereby a growth factor is pumped directly into dopamine deficient areas of the brain.

Neurologists working at the Frenchay Hospital in Bristol implanted catheters in the brains of five patients with Parkinson's disease (unilaterally affected, Hoehn and Yahr stage III; age range 46-62 years). The catheters were situated in the dorsal putamen—the region of the brain controlling movement that becomes deficient in the neurotransmitter dopamine in …