Objective: To evaluate the association between dysphagia and neurodegeneration of the putaminal dopaminergic system in people with early-stage treated with symptomatic therapy and advanced-stage Parkinson’s Disease (PD).

Background: Dysphagia is a common symptom of PD. We have previously demonstrated that people with early-stage drug-naive PD with swallowing difficulties have lower levels of DAT-SPECT in the putamen compared with people with PD without dysphagia.

Method: We included 276 early-treated and 13 advanced PD patients from the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) database in the analysis. We assessed dysphagia using the MDS Unified PD Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) Part II, Item 2.3 (Chewing & Swallowing) ≥ 1. The differences in [¹²³I]FP-CIT Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) levels within putamen were investigated in both people with early-stage and advanced-stage PD groups with and without dysphagia. The differences were tested using t-test.

Results: In the early-treated PD group, the prevalence of dysphagia was 18.8% (52/276) and the patients with dysphagia showed lower [¹²³I]FP-CIT uptake in the putamen compared to those without. In the advanced PD group, the prevalence of dysphagia was 61.5% (8/13) and the patients with dysphagia showed lower [¹²³I]FP-CIT uptake in the putamen compared to those without.

Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that dysphagia is associated with greater loss of putaminal dopaminergic terminals in people with early-stage treated with symptomatic therapy and advanced-stage PD.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/dysphagia-and-dopaminergic-neurodegeneration-in-parkinsons-disease/