ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE Jejunal Infusion of Levodopa–Carbidopa Intestinal Gel Versus Oral Administration of Levodopa–Carbidopa Tablets in Japanese Subjects with Advanced Parkinson’s Disease: Pharmacokinetics and Pilot Efficacy and Safety

The Author(s) 2015. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Background and Objective Oral levodopa-carbidopa (LC-oral) treatment in advanced Parkinson’s disease (PD) is associated with motor complications due to large fluc-tuations in levodopa plasma concentrations. Levodopa– carbidopa intestinal gel (LCIG) provides individualized continuous levodopa–carbidopa delivery through intraje-junal infusion. This study evaluated the pharmacokinetics, safety, and efficacy of LCIG relative to LC-oral in Ja-panese subjects with advanced PD. Methods Subjects with advanced PD were converted from their anti-PD medications to individually optimized doses of LC-oral (10:1 levodopa:carbidopa ratio) for 28 days (base-line; period 1) followed by switching to intrajejunal infusio