To document the demographic and clinical features in a cohort of PINK1 Parkinson’s patients living in New Zealand.

We performed a retrospective chart review of demographic and clinical factors including age of onset of symptoms, years since onset, levodopa daily dose at time of assessment, and additional Parkinson’s disease medications.

Amongst 27 patients with genetically confirmed PINK1 Parkinson’s disease, 10 were female, the median age was 56 (range 30-70), the median age of onset was 35 (range 12- 54) and the median body mass index was 31.4 (range 27 to 39). In terms of ethnicity, 15 were Samoan, 8 Tongan, 3 Tokelauan and 1 was Filipino. At the time of latest assessment, a median of 17 years (range 2 to 40) had elapsed since onset of symptoms. At this time, medication information was available on 25 of the 27 patients. 23 were on levodopa (11 monotherapy, 12 in combination with other treatments). The most common other treatments were apomorphine (n=7) and amantadine (n=5). The median levodopa daily dose (at median of 17 years since onset) was 600mg (interquartile range 350mg to 1000mg).

The cohort of PINK1 patients in New Zealand are of almost exclusive western Polynesian ethnicity. The onset of symptoms was largely before age 50 and the patients remained on relatively low daily levodopa doses 17 years after first symptoms. This may indicate a prolonged treatment responsiveness of PINK1 Parkinson's disease.