Session Information
Date: Thursday, June 8, 2017
Session Title: Parkinson's Disease: Neuroimaging And Neurophysiology
Session Time: 1:15pm-2:45pm
Location: Exhibit Hall C
Objective: To investigate whether smoking impacts striatal dopamine neuronal degeneration in Parkinson’s disease (PD), we compared striatal subregional dopamine transporter (DAT) binding between current-smokers and never-smokers with de novo PD.
Background: Cigarette smoking is inversely associated with the risk of PD. Cigarette smoke has been shown to protect against toxin-induced dopamine neuronal damage in experimental animals; however, its effect on dopamine neuronal degeneration in humans with PD is yet to be demonstrated.
Methods: We analyzed the data of 282 male patients with de novo PD (mean age, 66.2 ± 10.1 years; range, 38-89 years) with documented smoking history, who underwent DAT positron emission tomography scans. Among them, 105 ex-smokers were excluded from the analysis.
Results: Current-smokers (n = 44) showed higher depression score compared with never-smokers (n = 133), but other clinical variables were comparable between the two groups. DAT binding to the posterior and ventral putamen was higher, and inter-subregional gradients of the anterior putamen/posterior putamen and the ventral striatum/posterior putamen were lower in current-smokers than in never-smokers. A general linear model showed that Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS)-motor scores were comparable between the two groups after controlling for DAT binding to the posterior putamen and other potential confounding variables, but the interaction effect between smoking status and DAT binding to the posterior putamen on UPDRS-motor score was different, showing a steeper slope in current-smokers than in never-smokers.
Conclusions: These results demonstrate that current-smokers with PD has a different dopamine depletion pattern compared to never-smokers with PD and show a trend toward no protective effect of smoking on dopamine neuronal degeneration, suggesting that current-smokers with PD may represent a different PD subtype.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Y. Lee, H.s. Yoo, S.J. Chung, P.H. Lee, Y.H. Sohn. Does smoking impact dopamine neuronal loss in de novo Parkinson’s disease? [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2017; 32 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/does-smoking-impact-dopamine-neuronal-loss-in-de-novo-parkinsons-disease/. Accessed June 14, 2025.« Back to 2017 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/does-smoking-impact-dopamine-neuronal-loss-in-de-novo-parkinsons-disease/