Findings from a new study add to the growing body of literature suggesting that the long-term use of pergolide for Parkinson's disease increases the risk of cardiac valve regurgitation. By contrast, non-ergot-derived dopamine agonists seem to have little effect on this risk.
Although several studies have linked pergolide with cardiac valve regurgitation, just one has suggested that non-ergot-derived agents also elevate the risk of this problem.
In a case-control study, reported in the March issue of the Archives of Neurology, the occurrence of cardiac valve regurgitation (determined with echocardiography) was compared in 36 pergolide users and 36 matched users of the non-ergot dopamine agonists pramipexole or ropinirole. The severity of regurgitation was graded from 1 (trace) to 4 (severe).
The average regurgitation scores in the pergolide group were 0.83 for the aortic valve, 1.42 for the mitral valve, and 1.43 for the tricuspid valve, lead author Dr. Richard B. Dewey, from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and colleagues report. The corresponding scores in the control group -- 0.19, 0.39, and 0.19 -- were all significantly lower.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/553609?sssdmh=dm1.255183&src=nldne
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