Parkinson disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects approximately 6 million people worldwide and more than one-half million individuals in the United States.¹ Parkinson disease–associated morbidity and mortality in the United States contribute $6 billion to health care costs annually.² Incidence of Parkinson disease is expected to increase over the next decade, but neither a cure nor a treatment is available that has been proven to slow progression. Identification and development of effective therapies for slowing progression of Parkinson disease is a research priority.

The epidemic of type 2 diabetes in the United States prompted us to explore the association between diabetes and tuberculosis (TB) on the South Texas–Mexico border, in a large population of mostly non-hospitalized TB patients. We examined 6 years of retrospective data from all TB patients (n=5049) in South Texas and northeastern Mexico and found diabetes self-reported by 27·8% of Texan and 17·8% of Mexican TB patients, significantly exceeding national self-reported diabetes rates for both countries. Diabetes comorbidity substantially exceeded that of HIV/AIDS. Patients with TB and diabetes were older, more likely to have haemoptysis, pulmonary cavitations, be smear positive at diagnosis, and remain positive at the end of the first (Texas) or second (Mexico) month of treatment. The impact of type 2 diabetes on TB is underappreciated, and in the light of its epidemic status in many countries, it should be actively considered by TB control programmes, particularly in older patients.

While it is suggested that the prevalence of asthma in developed countries may have stabilized, this is not clear in currently developing countries. Current available information for both adults and children simultaneously on the burden and impact of allergic conditions in Colombia and in many Latin American countries is limited. The objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence for asthma, allergic rhinitis (AR), atopic eczema (AE), and atopy in six colombian cities; to quantify costs to the patient and her/his family; and to determine levels of Immunoglobulin E (IgE) in asthmatic and healthy subjects.

Greater body mass index (BMI, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) has been found to be associated with improved survival in several neurodegenerative diseases including Huntington disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.^1-5 However, to our knowledge, its effect on Parkinson disease (PD) progression and survival has not been previously examined. Midlife obesity has been associated with later PD risk in several studies^6,7 although not others.^8,9 At the same time, patients with PD are consistently reported to be underweight compared with healthy controls.¹⁰ This discrepancy is likely due to premorbid weight loss, which begins years prior to the diagnosis of PD.^9,11 Weight loss is common among persons with PD and may be related to the effects of dopaminergic medications on appetite¹² or to a combination of other factors, including hyposmia, difficulty self-feeding, dysphagia, intestinal hypomotility, depression, anorexia, nausea, and increased energy requirements due to rigidity, dyskinesia, and tremors.¹³ Although an abnormally low BMI (<20) has been shown to be a risk factor for fractures among persons with PD,^14,15 to our knowledge, the effects of changes in body mass on changes in the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) score and survival have not previously been studied. A recent study¹⁶ using the National Parkinson Foundation Quality Improvement Initiative database found that weight loss was associated with a more rapid decline in health-related quality of life. In this secondary analysis of data from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Exploratory Trials in PD Long-term Study-1 (NET-PD LS-1), we examined the effects of BMI at randomization and change in BMI across time in 3 outcomes: (1) change in the UPDRS part III (hereafter referred to as the motor UPDRS score), (2) change in the UPDRS parts I, II, and III (hereafter referred to as the total UPDRS score), and (3) PD survival.