[Circumstances of Parkinson's disease diagnosis].
Parkinson's disease is one of the most frequent neurodegenerative diseases. The usual characteristic signs combine the classical triad, rest tremor, bradykinesia and rigidity. The diagnosis is usually easy after several years, especially when the levodopa responsiveness is established, and most of the differential diagnosis can then be ruled out. However, the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease is not confirmed at autopsy in 25% of cases. The errors are much more frequent at disease onset since the clinical presentation may be insidious and may comprise non-motor signs such as pain, vegetative, sensory or neuropsychological signs. In the future, early recognition of the disease will become more and more important with the development of neuroprotective therapeutic strategies.
Abstract A simple pseudopotential (PP) model developed by us earlier was used here to study lattice dynamics and lattice statics of copper. Comparison of the accuracy attainable in different model calculations of the off-symmetry phonon frequencies was made, and the PP model appeared to be at least as accurate as the embedded atom method (EAM). We suggest that calculation of further lattice properties is necessary to evaluate any microscopic model properly. As an example we give a brief review of the PP model application in the lattice dynamics of alloys including the calculation of frequency shifts in different palladium-based alloys.