SERUM AND URINARY MANGANESE LEVELS IN PATIENTS WITH PARKINSONS-DISEASE

To elucidate the possible role of manganese in the risk of developing Parkinson's disease (PD), we compared serum levels of manganese, and 2 4-h manganese excretion by urine in 29 PD patients and in 27 matched c ontrols. We also measured chromium and cobalt in the same samples. All these values did not differ significantly between the groups, they we re not influenced by antiparkinsonian drugs, and they did not correlat e with age, age at onset and duration of the PD, scores of the Unified PD Rating Scale or the Hoehn and Yahr staging in the PD group. These results might suggest that serum levels and urinary excretion of manga nese are apparently unrelated to the risk of developing PD.