In honor of Parkinson’s disease awareness month, we wanted to cast a spotlight on a potential silver lining of this devastating illness: It may lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. By monitoring digital vascular biomarkers with SphygmoCor arterial waveform analysis, clinicians and researchers have sought to better understand the health implications of many chronic diseases, including Parkinson’s. An elevated augmentation index (Alx) or pulse pressure (PP) is strongly associated with an increased risk of an adverse cardiovascular event, such as death due to a stroke. Investigators of a 2017 publication in the Journal of Movement Disorders focused on the prevalence of heart attack and other CV events in patients with PD. The study found that peripheral and central pulse pressure was significantly lower in the Parkinson’s group than in the control group, which suggests that patients with PD are actually at lower risk of a cardiovascular event when compared to healthy individuals with a higher PP.  

Hemodynamic Indexes of Study Group Versus Control