Hyposialorrhea as an early manifestation of Parkinson disease

We sought to determine whether hyposialorrhea is an early manifestation of Parkinson disease (PD). We measured basal and citric acid stimulated secretion of whole saliva in 20 patients with early stage (Hoehn-Yahr I-II) PD who had motor symptoms for less than 1 year and were on no medication and 11 age matched controls. Compared to controls, PD patients had significant reduction of both basal (0.0964 +/- 0.08 vs 0.293 +/- 0.112 ml/min, p<0.001) and reflex (0.263 +/- 0.213 vs 0.537 +/- 0.313 ml/min, p<0.001) salivary secretion. Our findings confirm that hyposialorrhea is an early autonomic manifestation of PD. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.