Clinical manifestations of Parkinson’s disease

  Parkinson’s disease has an insidious onset and progresses slowly. The first symptom is usually tremor or clumsiness of movement in one limb, which then progresses to the opposite limb. The main clinical manifestations are resting tremor, bradykinesia, myotonia, and postural gait disturbances. In recent years, it has been increasingly noted that non-motor symptoms such as depression, constipation and sleep disturbances are also common complaints in patients with Parkinson’s disease, and their impact on patients’ quality of life is even greater than that of motor symptoms.  1, static tremor About 70% of patients have tremor as the first symptom, mostly starting from the distal part of one upper limb, appearing or obvious at rest, decreasing or stopping during random movement, increasing when nervous, and disappearing after sleep. Resting tremor of the hand is aggravated during walking. The typical manifestation is a “pill-rubbing” tremor with a frequency of 4 to 6 Hz. Some patients may have a combination of postural tremor. The typical complaint of patients is: “One of my hands often shakes, and the more I put it down, the more it shakes, but it doesn’t shake when I’m working or holding something. When I meet a stranger or get excited, I also shake a lot, but when I fall asleep, I don’t shake anymore.”  2, muscle ankylosis (rigidity) when the examiner moves the patient’s limbs, neck or trunk can be detected when there is a significant resistance, the increase in this resistance presents a uniform characteristic in all directions, similar to the feeling of bending a soft lead pipe, so called “lead-pipe rigidity” (lead-pipe rigidity). When the patient has a combination of limb tremor, there may be intermittent pauses in the uniform resistance, like turning a gear, so it is called “cogwheel rigidity”. The typical complaint of the patient is “my limbs are stiff and rigid.” In the early stage of the disease, sometimes muscle stiffness is not easily detected, so the patient can be asked to actively move one limb, and the dystonia of the affected limb will be increased by passive movement.  3. Bradykinesia is the slowing of movement, difficulty in initiation, and loss of active movement. The patient’s range of motion may be reduced, especially with repetitive movements. Depending on the area of involvement, bradykinesia can be manifested in several ways. Decreased facial expressions and transient glances are called masked face. The voice is monotonous and low, and the words are not clear. Writing may become slower and smaller, called micrographia. Washing, dressing, and other fine motor skills may become clumsy and inflexible. The speed of walking becomes slower, often trailing, and the swing of the arms gradually decreases or even disappears. The stride distance becomes smaller. Salivation may occur due to inability to swallow actively until saliva cannot be swallowed. Difficulty in turning over at night may occur. In the early stages of the disease, patients often mistake bradykinesia for weakness and often misdiagnose it as cerebrovascular disease or cervical spondylosis due to soreness and weakness in one limb. Therefore, patients should be alerted to the possibility of Parkinson’s disease when they slowly develop weakness in one limb with increased muscle tone. A typical complaint in early stage patients is: “I recently found that my right (or left) hand is not as strong as before, my writing is not as beautiful as before, and I feel that my right hand is not as flexible as my other hand when cracking eggs. When walking, I feel that my right leg (or left leg) is heavy and seems to drag.”  4, posture gait disorder posture reflex loss often appears in the middle and late stages of the disease, the patient is not easy to maintain body balance, the slightest uneven surface is likely to fall. The typical complaint of the patient is “I am afraid to walk by myself, the slightest touch by others or a small stone on the road can make me trip and fall. Postural reflexes can be detected by a back pull test. The examiner stands behind the patient and asks the patient to get ready and then pulls on his or her shoulders. A normal person can regain normal uprightness within one step of stepping back. Patients with PD often walk faster and faster and do not easily reach the step, which is called festinating gait. A typical patient complaint is, “I often walk faster and faster and can’t stop walking.” Patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease may experience freezing, which is a sudden, brief inability to walk, where the feet seem to stick to the ground and pause for several seconds before continuing or failing to start again. Freezing is common at the start of walking (difficulty starting to move), when turning around, when approaching a target, or when there is concern about not being able to cross a known obstacle, such as going through a revolving door. Typical complaints of patients are, “When I get up to just walk I often have to pause for a few seconds before I can walk, and sometimes I suddenly can’t take a step while walking, especially when I turn a corner or see something in front of me blocking my path.”  5. Non-motor symptoms: In addition to motor symptoms such as tremor and slowed movement, Parkinson’s disease patients may also experience non-motor symptoms such as depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, and cognitive impairment. Fatigue is also a common non-motor symptom of Parkinson’s disease. Typical complaints of patients are, “I feel physically tired and weak; I sleep poorly and often can’t sleep; I have trouble with bowel movements, once every few days; I am in a bad mood and always happy; I have a poor memory and slow brain response.”