ANPAR: An Integrated Platform for Parkinson’s Disease Research
The Ankara Parkinson’s Disease Registry (ANPAR) is a prospective, longitudinal cohort established to enable characterization of Parkinson’s disease. The cohort integrates standardized and detailed clinical, demographic, and exposure-related data with comprehensive biomaterial collection, including serum and DNA, and systematic speech recordings for advanced acoustic analyses. The primary aim of ANPAR is to investigate environmental, metabolic, genetic, and other relevant risk factors for Parkinson’s disease, to define biologically and clinically meaningful pathological subtypes, and to identify robust biomarkers for disease stratification, progression, and early diagnosis.
Diversification of Parkinson’s Disease-Related Data
It has been widely acknowledged that the plurality of the existing data on PD is derived from Europe and North America, i.e., European ancestry, which is equivalent to only around 15% of the world’s population. This creates a huge bias in the interpretation of the data and hinders the generalization of current knowledge. In that sense, we aim to do our part of the job by providing data from Turkey and contributing to the diversification of PD-related knowledge. These include (but are not limited to) studies in genetic PD, deep brain stimulation, demonstrating attitudes of Turkish PD patients regarding COVID-19, prodromal PD, stigmatization etc.
Clinical Outcome Assessments (Rating Scales)
Our group puts particular interest in the quantification of clinical data and its cultural adaptation. In accordance with this Turkish standardization of several rating scales are performed in collaboration with the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society (MDS), including the MDS Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS).