On Sunday 26 March 1996 the American Parkinson Disease
Association, Southern California Chapter and the APDA Information
& Referral Center at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles
held the Eleventh Annual Medical Symposium.
 
My wife and I attended the event.  Our estimate of the attendance
was about 250.  PD is truly an equal opportunity disease.
Attendees were young and old, male and female, all colors of the
rainbow and last names that likely originated in every corner of
the globe.  This is only the second "organized" Parkinson
specific meeting we have attended, even though I have been on
drug therapy for 6 years.  The meeting was very useful and much
different than I expected it to be.  For the benefit of those who
did not attend, I am enclosing a summary of what I found to be
the high spots:
 
The formal meeting began with introductions of APDA staff,
including Frank Williams, Executive Director, who we later
learned had a heart transplant.  The APDA staff focused on the
work to be done, including support for the Udall Bill.
Naturally, the work takes money and they asked for financial
support for the organization.  An APDA staffer later confirmed
that the PD organizations will at sometime join together.  That
was met with applause by the audience.  She said that she expects
the APDA to join (merge?) with another organization within weeks.
 
A. Lieberman, MD of the Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix AZ
discussed the current status of PD strategies, both in terms of
drug and surgical treatment.  He demonstrated with an attendee
using a cane, how posture can often be improved simply by walking
with hands behind the waist.  That method of walking forces
shoulders backward and the spine upright.  (I tried it and it
works!  It relieved pain in my neck.)
 
Susan Imke a Nurse Practitioner at Barrow, spoke of medication
and how we must be explicit in defining problems and we must be
logical in dealing with PD.  For example, don't wait until 4:45
PM on Friday to call for a prescription since the pills run out
Friday PM.  The presentation was well conceived and reiterated
how we need to use common sense and help our medical team help
us.
 
A most incredible fellow spent about 10 minutes as the luncheon
speaker.  Masoud Karkihabadi, a PD researcher at University of
California, Irvine (UCI) Medical School discussed his research
into neuro growth factors (NGF) and how he expects them to become
the treatment (cure?) of choice in not too many years.  What is
extraordinary about Mr. Karkihabadi's opinion?  Masoud is 13
years old, a high school graduate at 7 and a UCI graduate with a
BS in biochemistry.  He graduated from UCI on his 13th birthday.
I have read about Masoud in our local newspaper over the past
years.  His parents have been slowing down his academic endeavors
due to his age.  As I recall the story, his aunt was studying
nursing and when he was 3 he read one of her texts regarding
neurology and decided to make PD research and cure his goal in
life.  At age 3, he read a computer manual once and then began
writing programs.  Masoud is described as an APDA "Spokesperson"
and I got the impression that his project receives APDA financial
support too.
 
After Lunch, D. Jacques, MD spoke about surgical treatments:
Thalamotomy using the Gamma Knife, pallidotomy using thin probes
to approach the globus pallidus and using a RF (radio frequency)
probe to cause a lesion.  Finally, the fetal tissue implant was
discussed.  Susan (last name?), well known to many in the
audience was introduced.  She had implant surgery 2 weeks before
the meeting.  Dr. Jacques did anything but give a strong "pitch"
for surgery.  It is risky and does not always do what it is
planned to do.  He did mention the importance of having a
neurologist who sees many PD patients since proper diagnosis is
the key to treatment.  Diagnosis of Idiopathic (cause unknown) PD
is qualitative and not simply read from an MRI or blood test
results.
 
The final speaker was T. Chase, MD of the NIH who spoke of the
government research and government sponsored research.  The focus
of his talk included exciting prospects from NGFs and the ability
to clone or tailor drugs using gene splicing techniques.  He also
spoke about some drugs now in the test and evaluation cycle and
the benefits these palliatives will bring to us.
 
Most of the speakers stayed to take part in a panel discussion
answering written questions from the audience.
 
We left the meeting with renewed hope that good things are
happening and even today we have options for our treatment.
 
The APDA did a great job and deserves our support.  The speakers
were well prepared, the site easy to get to and believe it or
not, the luncheon was equal to that of any fine restaurant.