December 24, 2025

@michaelokun

What can the heart reveal in Parkinson’s? A new peek through the eyes of an echocardiogram. Echocardiography is a heart ultrasound that measures how well the heart muscle moves and relaxes. Li and colleagues describe in a new paper in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease how detailed heart ultrasound measures may possibly uncover early cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction in Parkinson’s. Key Points: - About one third of folks w/ Parkinson’s showed cardiac autonomic dysfunction despite being in relatively early disease stages. - Subtle heart muscle changes were detected using advanced echocardiography even when standard heart function appeared normal. - Measures like global longitudinal strain and mitral annular velocity helped identify autonomic related heart injury similar to what we sometimes see in traditional autonomic tests. My take: Though this study is small and will need replication the findings make sense and challenge us to think more about the heart in Parkinson’s. Here are 5 points that resonated w/ me: 1- Parkinson’s affects more than movement and frequently involves the heart through the autonomic nervous system. 2- Heart ultrasound can pick up early changes before symptoms; like possible dizziness or fainting in some cases of Parkinson’s. 3- These heart changes observed on echo were not tied to Parkinson’s motor severity or medication dose. 4- Echocardiograms are noninvasive, accessible and may possibly help flag higher cardiovascular risk earlier, though this idea is not ready for prime time. 5- Could understanding heart involvement may help health care providers better protect long term health in Parkinson’s? https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1877718X251405816 #michaelokun #fixelinstitute #parkinson #heart #echocardiography