Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate correlations among clinical features of Parkinson’s disease (PD), odor stick identification test for Japanese (OSIT-J) score, nigro-strial FP-CIT uptake, and cardiac MIBG uptake.

Background: Olfactory loss and cardiac sympathetic denervation on MIBG cardiac scintigraphy are in the supportive criteria and normal functional neuroimaging of the presynaptic dopaminergic system is in the absolute exclusion criteria in the new MDS Clinical Diagnostic Criteria for PD (Mov Disord 2015). However, the relationship among clinical feature of PD, olfactory function, striatal FP-CIT uptake, and cardiac MIBG uptake remains to be elucidated.

Methods: A hundred patients with PD (average age: 70 years old, 33 men and 67 women) were enrolled in this study. Dopamine transporter (DAT) scintigraphy was performed in all the patients from April 2014 to November 2015. We evaluated correlations among the clinical features including age, duration of illness, MDS-UPDRS scores, OSIT-J scores, the specific binding ratio (SBR) of DAT scintigraphy, and heart to mediastinum (H/M) ratio of MIBG cardiac scintigraphy. The clinical features, OSIT-J test, and MIBG cardiac scintigraphy were checked before and after three months from the time of DAT scintigraphy.

Results: FP-CIT uptake was decreased in all the patients. We found correlations between SBR and the age (r=-0.418, p<0.01), the durations of illness (r=-0.383, p<0.01), Hoehn-Yahr stage (r=-0.626, p<0.01), MDS-UPDRS part2 (r=-0.561, p<0.01), part2+3 (r=-0.506, p<0.01), part4 (r=-0.476, p<0.01), and delayed phase of H/M ratio (r=0.323, p<0.05). On the other hand, we found no correlations between SBR and MDS-UPDRS part1 (r=-0.232, p=0.209), part3 (r=-0.320, p=0.079), OSIT-J score (r=0.087, p=0.541), and early phase of H/M ratio (r=0.296, p=0.067).

Conclusions: We conclude that there is a correlation between the nigro-stiral dopaminergic function and motor symptoms, but not olfactory system in PD. At the moment, the relationship between the nigro-striatal dopaminergic function and cardiac sympathetic nervous system still remains to be elucidated.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-relationship-among-clinical-features-dat-scintigraphy-and-mibg-cardiac-scintigraphy-in-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/