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 speech difficulties are associated with striatal dopaminergic deficits and whether are linked to progression of symptoms in early de novo patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD).
Background: The mechanisms underlying speech abnormalities in PD are still poorly understood and little is known on their prognostic value in PD progression.
Methods: We included 353 early de novo PD patients from the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative database in the analysis. Speech difficulties were evaluated using the Unified PD Rating Scale Part-III (UPDRS-III), Item 3.1 (Speech) ≥ 1. We investigated differences in striatal [123I]FP-CIT single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) levels, motor and non-motor features in early de novo PD patients with and without speech difficulties. Cox proportional hazards analysis was carried out to investigate whether speech difficulties were predictive of a faster disease progression and development of cognitive impairment.
Results: The prevalence of speech difficulties in early de novo PD patients was 43.9% (155/353). PD patients with speech difficulties have increased motor and non-motor symptoms burden as well as significant lower [123I]FP-CIT uptakes in the striatum (P<0.001), caudate (P=0.006) and putamen (P<0.001) compared to those without. Cox proportional hazards analysis showed that the presence of speech difficulties in early de novo PD patients predicts the development of cognitive impairment at a three-year follow-up (P=0.008), whereas has no influence on PD motor progression (P>0.10).
Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that speech difficulties are associated with worse motor symptoms, loss of striatal presynaptic dopaminergic function and may be predictive of a more rapid cognitive decline in early de novo PD patients.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
S. Polychronis, F. Niccolini, G. Pagano, M. Politis. Speech difficulties are linked to striatal dopaminergic deficits and cognitive decline in early de novo patients with Parkinson’s disease [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2017; 32 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/speech-difficulties-are-linked-to-striatal-dopaminergic-deficits-and-cognitive-decline-in-early-de-novo-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/. Accessed May 18, 2025.« Back to 2017 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/speech-difficulties-are-linked-to-striatal-dopaminergic-deficits-and-cognitive-decline-in-early-de-novo-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/