Parkinsonism‐dementia in a Filipino migrant

Abstract

A 69-year-old male Filipino migrant developed a clinical syndrome and neuropathologic changes indistinguishable from parkinsonism-dementia (PD). The patient originally migrated from the Ilocos region of the Philippine Islands to Hawaii and then to Guam, where he remained for 26 years before neurologic symptoms began. This is the first case of clinically and neuropathologically verified PD in a non-Chamorro and supports the notion that long-term continuous exposure to the Guamanian environment increases the risk of developing disease.