PLASMA-LEVELS OF NITRATES IN PATIENTS WITH PARKINSONS-DISEASE

It has been suggested that nitric oxide (NO) could be implicated in th e neuronal degeneration of substantia nigra compacta in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). To ascertain the possible role of NO as risk factor for PD, we studied the plasma levels of nitrate (oxidation pro duct that provides an indirect estimation of NO), in 68 PD patients an d 68 matched-controls. The plasma levels of nitrate did not differ sig nificantly between PD patient and control groups (44.5 +/- 2.46 and 44 .8 +/- 2.67 mu mol/l, respectively). They were not influenced by antip arkinsonian drug and they did not correlate with age at onset, duratio n, scores of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating scales and Hoehn a nd Yahr staging in the PD group. These data suggest that plasma levels of nitrate are apparently unrelated to the risk for PD.