Increased incidence of Parkinson disease among relatives of patients with Gaucher disease

In a previous study of 99 Ashkenazi Jewish patients with Parkinson disease from Israel who were tested for the six most common mutations for Gaucher disease, 31.3% had at least one Gaucher disease mutation, implying that carrier status per se my be a risk for Parkinson disease. The purpose of this survey was to ascertain the presence of Parkinson disease among Ashkenazi Jewish obligate carriers of Gaucher disease relative to its incidence in a comparable cohort of Ashkenazi Jews who are putatively non-carriers. There was no statistically significant difference in gender or age between the groups (n > 100). Among patients, 27.3% reported having a relative with Parkinson disease while among the controls there was a reported 12.3% which was statistically significant (P = 0.05). While based completely on subjective reports in a paper-base questionnaire, the results of this survey implicate a high rate of Parkinson disease among individuals with Gaucher disease mutations.