Clinical diagnostic criteria in Parkinson's disease and parkinsonian syndromes: review of the literature.

This paper reviews the validity of clinical diagnostic criteria developed f or Parkinson's disease and parkinsonian syndromes. Proposed criteria are pr edominantly empirical. There are only a few studies with neuropathological verifications. For Parkinson's disease and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy c linicopathological studies have been performed and led to pathologically ba sed criteria. In this context the specificity and sensitivity of clinical c riteria could be assessed. Reliability however has seldom been tested. In c ontrast, the proposed criteria for the clinical diagnosis of Multiple Syste m Atrophy and Corticobasal atrophy have not been pathologically evaluated.