Username


Password

Forgot Password?

Preview

Sign-in free and Explore the Exciting World of BiomedExperts:
  • Over 1.500.000 Profiles
  • More than 1.800 Organizations worldwide
  • State of the Art Network Visualizations
  • Manage your own Profile
  • Locate Experts in your Country/Region
  • Locate Experts in your 1. and 2. Level Network
  • Connect to Experts Worldwide
2005Forte Giovanni; Alimonti Alessandro; Violante Nicola; Di Gregorio Marco; Senofonte Oreste; Petrucci Francesco; Sancesario Giuseppe; Bocca Beatrice
Calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, silicon and zinc content of hair in Parkinson's disease.
Journal of trace elements in medicine and biology : organ of the Society for Minerals and Trace Elements (GMS) 2005;19(2-3):195-201.
The aetiology of Parkinson's disease (PD) is still unknown, but some hypotheses have focused on the imbalances in body levels of metals as co-factors of risk. To assess whether hair could be a reliable marker of possible changes, calcium (Ca), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), silicon (Si) and zinc (Zn) were determined in hair from 81 patients affected by PD and 17 age-matched controls. Care was taken to eliminate external contamination of the hair by thorough washing. Digestion of the matrix was achieved by an acid-assisted microwave procedure. Quantification of the elements was performed by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. Results indicated significantly lower levels of Fe in the hair of patients (p=0.018) compared with controls. Ca and Mg levels were slightly lower while Zn levels were higher in patients, although these differences were not significant; neither were variations in Cu and Si. Ca and Mg were at least 1.5 times higher in females than in males in both controls and patients. In addition, Ca correlated positively with Mg in both groups and in both sexes (p-value always less than 0.03), and negatively with age in patients (p<0.01). Finally, element levels did not correlate with either the duration or the severity of the disease or with anti-Parkinson treatment.

Post to CiteULike

Sign in free and see...

Visualized networks:
See your personal network in
sophisticated graphical views
GeoTargeted Searches:
Locate experts around the world
and connect with global collaborators
Research Profiles:
See the visualized research activity
of experts around the globe
Sign-in to see more