Case series/case reports (Indigo)
The objective of this study, recently published in Parkinsonism and Related Disorders, was to estimate the prevalence of COVID-19 in a large population of PD patients and compare the infection rate with the general population of the same region. To this end, the authors interviewed a large cohort of PD patients living in Piedmont, a northern Italian region with the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases in Italy after Lombardy. The regional section of the Italian Association of Parkinsonian patients interviewed 1,407 PD patients (or their caregivers) by telephone on 4–6 May 2020, and asked for laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19. Eight PD patients, meaning 0.57% of those interviewed, were found to be positive for COVID-19. PD symptoms worsened in all patients, early before or early after the onset of signs of infection, which included fever (100% of patients), weakness (43%), muscle pain (29%), dyspnoea (29%), and cough (14%). Interestingly, one patient developed disabling dyskinesia as the presenting symptom of the infection.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.parkreldis.2020.09.008
