Parkinson’s Disease: Or something else? Differential Diagnosis

Endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases (E00-E90).

  • Amyloidopathies – abnormal accumulation of abnormally altered proteins in the interstitium (between cells), which is possible in almost all organs.
  • Chédiak-Higashi disease – very rare metabolic disease that leads mainly to pigment deficiency and recurrent infections.
  • Hypoparathyroidism (hypothyroidism of the parathyroid gland).
  • Wilson’s disease (copper storage disease) – autosomal recessive inherited disease in which copper metabolism in the liver is disturbed by one or more gene mutations.

Infectious and parasitic diseases (A00-B99).

  • Syphilis (lues) – sexually transmitted infectious disease.

Neoplasms – tumor diseases (C00-D48).

  • Brain tumors, unspecified

Psyche – nervous system (F00-F99; G00-G99).

  • Huntington’s chorea (synonyms: Huntington’s chorea or Huntington’s disease; older name: St. Vitus’ dance) – genetic disorder with autosomal dominant inheritance characterized by involuntary, uncoordinated movements accompanied by flaccid muscle tone.
  • Dementia pugilistica – dementia caused by repeated traumatic brain injury (injury).
  • Depression
  • Dystonia Parkinsonism
  • Essential tremor – genetically caused trembling of the hands at rest.
  • Familial form of Parkinsonism
  • Frontotemporal dementia (FTD; synonyms: Pick’s disease, Pick’s disease; Pick’s disease) – a neurodegenerative disease in the frontal lobe (frontal lobe) and temporal lobe (temporal lobe) of the brain, usually occurring before the age of 60, resulting in progressive personality decline; belongs to the group of frontotemporal lobular degenerations; three clinical subtypes caused by frontotemporal neuronal decline are distinguished: 1. Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), 2. semantic dementia, and 3. progressive non-fluent aphasia; FTD is often misdiagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease.
  • Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome (GSSS) – transmissible spongiform encephalopathy caused by prions; it resembles Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease; disease with ataxia (gait disorder) and progressive dementia.
  • Hallervorden-Spatz syndrome – genetic disease with autosomal recessive inheritance, which leads to neurodegeneration with iron deposition in the brain, resulting in mental retardation and early death; onset of symptoms before the age of 10.
  • Idiopathic (unknown) conditioned form of Parkinsonism.
  • Catatonia – psychiatric disorder with limitation of movement.
  • Corticobasal degeneration – degradation of tissue of certain brain areas.
  • Lewy body dementia – dementia with special histological picture.
  • Multi-infarct dementia – dementia that can occur after multiple strokes.
  • Non-Wilson hepatolenticular degeneration – changes similar to those seen in Wilson’s disease (copper storage disease).
  • Normal pressure hydrocephalus – special form of hydrocephalus.
  • Post-encephalitic Parkinsonism – parkinsonism occurring after inflammation of the brain.
  • Progressive supranuclear palsy – serious neurological disease.
  • Spinocerebellar ataxia – gait disturbance due to spinal cord and cerebellar damage.
  • Vascular Parkinson’s syndrome (subcortical vascular encephalopathy) – parkinsonism developed due to vascular changes.
  • Cerebral palsy – damage to the central nervous system usually during birth or neonatal period.

Symptoms and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings not elsewhere classified (R00-R99).

  • Apathy (listlessness)

Medication

Environmental pollution – intoxications (poisoning).

  • Cobald
  • Disulfiram
  • Carbon disulfide
  • Carbon monoxide
  • Manganese
  • Methyl alcohol (methanol)
  • MPTP (1-methyl-1-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine)
  • Cyanide

Legend: In bold, the main differential diagnoses of Parkinson’s disease.