SYSTEMIC IRON-METABOLISM AND MORTALITY FROM PARKINSONS-DISEASE

Six measures of systemic iron metabolism were used to predict mortalit y among 103 patients with Parkinson's disease and 353 controls followe d in a longitudinal study. Adjusting for gender, education, ethnicity, presence of dementia, and extrapyramidal signs, transferrin receptor concentration was strongly associated with mortality in patients with PD but not controls. This increase in serum transferrin receptor conce ntration before death suggests that the previously observed perturbati on in iron metabolism continues throughout the disease course.