Progressive supranuclear palsy

Progressive supranuclear palsy of PSP is the name Dr. J. Clifford Richardson chose to designate a unusual clinical syndrome he first identified in the 1963.

During the past 30 years, neurologists confirm that progressive supranuclear palsy is a universal, sporadic and not uncommon neurodegeneration of middle and late life. 

Progressive supranuclear palsy or Steele-Richardson-Olszewski disease is defined as a typical parkinsonian syndrome characterized by supranuclear gaze impairment, prominent and early postural instability with fails, axial greater than appendicular rigidity and poor or absent response to levodopa.

It is also characterized clinically by neck dystopia, Parkinson, pseudobulbar palsy, and frontal lone-type dementia.

The condition is progressive and leads to death on average about 6 years from onset.

On gross examination the brain usually shows only minor abnormalities or may appear normal. On slicing, the ventricles may be slightly enlarged.

The midbrain is shrunken, particularly the superior colliculi, the mesencephalic tegmentum, and the periaqueductal grey matter.
Progressive supranuclear palsy

Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, affecting over 1 million people in the United States alone.

Parkinson’s disease is named after James Parkinson, who in 1817 wrote about the condition he called ‘the shaking palsy’.

The disease affects the part of the brain that makes a chemical messenger (dopamine) that helps to tell the muscles what to do.

Dopamine is a chemical that has a range of functions around the body but has an especially important role as a neurotransmitter in the brain.

Dopamine is stored in vesicles in the end of a nerve process and the arrival of an electrical signal down that nerve fiber leads to the vesicles of dopamine release.

It is a slowly progressive disease of the brain. Although it mainly affects mobility, it can also affect emotions, thinking, communicating and bodily functions – (including those of the bowel and bladder).
Parkinson’s disease