TITLE:
Clinical Patterns of Primary Dystonias among Hospitalized Patients in Baghdad and Kut in Iraq
AUTHORS:
Saadoun Al Ameer, Samer Mohammed Saeed, Bahaa Hassan, Zaki Noah Hasan
KEYWORDS:
L-, Baghdad, L-DOPA, Classifications, Dystonia
JOURNAL NAME:
World Journal of Neuroscience,
Vol.5 No.5,
November
13,
2015
ABSTRACT: Aim of study: This study
was carried out to describe characteristics of 22 primary dystonic patients and
their response to therapy. Patients and method: Twenty-two patients were
entered into the study from Baghdad teaching hospital, Al-Kadhymia teaching
hospital in Baghdad, privet nursery home teaching hospital in Baghdad, and
Alzehraa teaching hospital in Kut south to Baghdad from January 2005 to January
2008. All cases were primary dystonia, secondary dystonia has been excluded
from our study. Neuroimiging and slit Lampe examination have been done for all
cases, L-Dopa in dose of 10/mg/kg/day for 2 weeks was giving for all patients.
Type of study is a retrospective cohort study. All patients were followed in
the outpatient clinics of the hospitals mentioned previously with frequent
neurological examinations. Results: Out of 22 patients, 15 (68%) patients were
females, 7 (32%) were males. According to descriptive classifications of dystonia
by age of onset, fourteen patients (64%) were of early onset and eight (36%)
being late onset (26 years and older). Three patients had generalized dystonia,
19 patients had focal dystonia {11 (58%) cases were cervical (TORTICOLIS) type,
5 (26%) blepharospasm type and segmental (LIMBES) dystonia 3 (16%)}. All cases
were given L-DOPA in dose 10/mg/kg for 2 weeks, only two cases shown clinical
response for the drug inform of absence of abnormal movements and improve
quality of life. Conclusion: Dystonia is rare; however, early onset dystonia
are more common than late onset. Dystonia are more common in females than in
males and focal dystonia is more common than generalized dystonia.