Clinical Profile of Parkinson's Disease: Experience of Niger

Hamid Assadeck; Moussa Toudou Daouda; Fatimata Hassane Djibo; Djibo Douma Maiga; Eric Adehossi Omar

doi:10.4103/jnrp.jnrp_337_17

Clinical Profile of Parkinson's Disease: Experience of Niger

J Neurosci Rural Pract. 2018 Apr-Jun;9(2):214-218. doi: 10.4103/jnrp.jnrp_337_17.

Authors

Hamid Assadeck^{1

2}, Moussa Toudou Daouda¹, Fatimata Hassane Djibo¹, Djibo Douma Maiga^{1

2}, Eric Adehossi Omar^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine and Medical Specialties, National Hospital of Niamey, Niamey, Niger.
² Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Abdou Moumouni University, Niamey, Niger.

Abstract

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic neurodegenerative pathology with unknown etiology. It is characterized clinically by the classic triad that associated tremors, bradykinesia, and rigidity. In Niger, there are no data on PD.

Aims: We aimed to provide the demographic and clinical profile of PD in patients from Niger to create a database on PD in Niger.

Patients and methods: We conducted a retrospective study at the Neurology Outpatient Clinic of the Hôpital National de Niamey (HNN, Niger) over a period of 4.42 years from February 2009 to July 2013 collecting all cases of PD. The demographic and clinical features of all patients were collected and analyzed.

Results: During the period of the study, 1695 patients consulted at the Neurology Outpatient Clinic of the HNN, among which 76 patients (4.48%) had secondary parkinsonism and 25 patients (1.47%) had features compatible with PD. Only patients with PD were included in this study. The mean age at onset of symptoms was 58 years (range: 42-74 years). The male sex was predominant (60%) with a sex ratio of 1.5. The mean time interval from the onset of symptoms to diagnosis of PD was 1.8 years (range: 1-5 years). The tremor was the most common symptom (84%). Bradykinesia represented 64% of the symptoms and rigidity 20%. At the time of the diagnosis of PD, 8 patients (32%) were in Stage I of the classification of Hoehn and Yahr, 16 patients (64%) in Stage II, and 1 patient (4%) in Stage III. The levodopa/carbidopa combination was the most used antiparkinsonian drug in our patients (88%). The mean time of follow-up of the patients was 2.5 years (range: 1-4.42 years). During the course of the disease, 9 patients (36%) were in Stage II of the classification of Hoehn and Yahr, 13 patients (52%) in Stage III, and 3 patients (12%) in Stage IV.

Conclusion: Our study provides demographic and clinical data of PD in patients from Niger and shows that the hospital frequency of this disease is low (1.47%). The demographic and clinical features of our patients are similar to those of the patients of the prior studies reported in sub-Saharan Africa.

Keywords: Hospital frequency; Niger; Parkinson's disease.