Alpha-Synuclein Pathology and Axonal Degeneration of the Peripheral Motor Nerves Innervating Pharyngeal Muscles in Parkinson Disease

Parkinson disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease primarily characterized by cardinal motor manifestations and CNS pathology. Current drug therapies can often stabilize these cardinal motor symptoms, and attention has shifted to the other motor and nonmotor symptoms of PD that are resistant to drug therapy. Dysphagia in PD is perhaps the most important drug-resistant symptom because it leads to aspiration and pneumonia, the leading cause of...