Nervous System Diseases Commons^™

Distinguishing Multiple System Atrophy Vs Parkinson’S Disease In An African American Woman, Mahoua Kane, Rebecca Smith, Venkat Venkataraman

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

An 87-year-old African American woman with a past medical history of atrial fibrillation on warfarin and peripheral neuropathy with a family history of myasthenia gravis presented to the Emergency Department. The primary reason was loss of consciousness upon standing. The patient was given the diagnosis of hypertension, cervical spinal stenosis, and Parkinson’s Disease. There is little improvement with medications for any of these conditions. Currently, patient has episodes of worsening BP, blackouts, dysphagia, snoring, decreasing voice pitch with trismus. In addition, the patient is positive for dizziness, mild resting tremor in left hand with rigidity, constipation, multiple UTIs and postural …