The association between autonomic nervous system and the most affected side in idiopatic parkinson's disease

iPD is a neurodegenerative disorder which the motor and non-motor symptoms are accompanied with. Non-motor features can be seen in every stage and can appear before motor findings arise. Autonomic dysfunction is one of the most prevalent non-motor features of iPD which includes enteric and bladder dysfunction, sexual dysfunction, sweating disorders, ortostatic hypotension. Not only because they seem very often but since they effect the quality of life of the patients, non-motor symptoms have great importance. The asymmetry of brain as a universal phenomenon describes the function of the whole nervous system. This asymmetric involvement is also manifested in iPD studies clinically and neuropathologically. In this study we examined 30 iPD patients to investigate the association of asymmetry in iPD and autonomic nervous system involvement. Patients are gone through a detailed physical and neurological examination. H&Y, UPDRS, MMT scores are enrolled. Autonomic symptoms are questionized with 12 items. When the outcomes are examined we saw that autonomic disorder severity increases with the term of the disease as well as the severity of motor symptoms. Furthermore we came through that the autonomic symptoms can be seen from the early stages of the disease. The patients without bradykinesia had better responses to the therapy. The frequency of hallucination increased with the age and the severity of the disease. When the association with the side of onset of iPH symptoms and the autonomic involvement examined , which was the aim of this study, there was not a significant association but a weak correlation.