Does Parkinson's Disease Affect Peripheral Circulation and Vascular Integrity?

Previous studies demonstrated that aging, neurodegeneration, and the level of physical activity are associated with vascular alterations. However, in Parkinson's disease (PD) only cerebral vascular function has been investigated; instead, the contribution of PD on systemic vascular function and skeletal muscle circulation remains a matter of debate. In this study, the hyperemic response during the single passive leg movement test (sPLM) was examined at the level of the common femoral artery with an ultrasound Doppler system to assess systemic vascular function in 10 subjects with PD (PDG), compared with 10 aged-sex and physically active matched healthy elderly (EHG), and 10 physically active young healthy individuals (YHG). Interestingly, femoral blood flow at rest was similar in PDG (64±15 mL min L ), EHG (44±8 mL min L ) and YHG (58±11 mL min L ). Our working hypothesis was that PDG would present an altered blood flow to the skeletal muscle, a reduced vascular function due to the pathology compared with the other groups. However, the sPLM-hyperemic response appeared markedly lower in PDG and EHG compared to YHG (8.3±0.1 vs 9.8±0.8 vs 17±3 mL min L ; p < 0.05) but the difference between PDG and EHG was negligible (p > 0.05). The results of our study indicate that peripheral circulation and vascular function are not reduced in physically active patients with PD, suggesting that these vascular changes could resemble the physiological adjustments of aging, without any impact from the disease.