Norma,.
From what I understand, MSA is very similar to Parkinsons, but progresses a lot faster and involves.. high blood pressure. I was upset with my neurologist for first diagnosing me with MSA when she didnt know. People with it normally do not respond well to Sinement (Carb/Lev). There is not a whole lot of info on MSA. Good luck that it is "plain old PD".

I just listened to the Third Thursday Webinar from Michael J Fox and it was all about Parkinsonisms including MSA which stands for Multi System Atrophy. I would suggest that you go to the website and listen to it - a good investment of an hour of your time! 😃

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/a/#!p...
This is an article concerning the clinical diagnosis criteria for Multiple System Atrophy- Parkinson's and Multiple System Atrophy-Cerebellar aka MSA-P or MSA-C being both Atypical Parkinsonisms. The charts are particularly revealing but not self explanatory. For the proper understanding of the charts you need to read the whole article with a medical dictionary at hand along with a lot of copy and paste into a document for reference later. A printer is helpful too! Happy voyage!--J

Our neurologist gave us pages on MSA as my hubby has it also problem is Dr. said is that there is nothing for it .Just the Pramipexole and carbidopa/levodopa .His left hand closed down into a fist and had surgery to reopen it but almost useless .called Multiple Symptom Atrophy .Muscles are extremely rigid .Ask your Dr. about info on it .You'll better understand what it is