[Vascular parkinsonism].

Critchley speculated that multiple vascular lesions of the basal ganglia must have an etiological connection to the symptoms of so-called vascular parkinsonism (VP), but without neuropathological confirmation. Some had doubts about its existence because of the lack of the pathologically confirmed case with adequate clinical correlation. At present, VP is characterized clinically by the short-stepped or frozen gait, lead-pipe rigidity, the symmetry of findings, absence of resting tremor, and negative response to levodopa in elderly patients with cerebrovascular lesions on CT/MRI. Pseudobulbar palsies, pyramidal tract findings, and/or multi-infarct dementia coexist in some of the cases. Most of clinically suspected VP patients have cerebral white matter lesions as well as basal ganglia lesions.