Differential diagnosis

Abstract

Parkinsonism refers to a clinical syndrome characterized by a variable combination of rest tremor, bradykinesia or akinesia, cogwheel rigidity, and postural instability. In general, two of these four features must be present to make a diagnosis of parkinsonism. However, the situation is complicated by rare cases of pure akinesia in the absence of tremor and rigidity that have the classic pathology of Parkinson’s disease (PD) (1). Within the rubric of parkinsonism there are a myriad of disorders, some yet unclassified (Table 3.1).