Category: Parkinson's Disease: Neuroimaging
Objective: To investigate regional iron accumulation in patients with essential tremor (ET) and Parkinson´s disease (PD) and its clinical associations with apparent susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) mapping
Background: Deep grey matter nuclei iron accumulation displays specific patterns in PD when measured with iron-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging, being closely associated with motor severity but tremor.
Method: Forty patients with PD, twenty-eight with ET and 19 nineteen healthy controls underwent SWI in 3T MRI scanner. Maps of apparent susceptibility were obtained after processing SWI data using high-pass filtered phase sequence. Regional analysis of iron accumulation in deep brain nuclei including basal ganglia and cerebellar structures was performed using quantitative susceptibility. Regional iron deposition were compared between PD, ET and controls using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) adjusting for age. Furthermore, correlation analysis was performed between tremor clinical scores and iron accumulation in both ET and PD patients. In the PD group, we also analyzed correlations considering motor severity based on the Unified Parkinson´s disease rating scale part III (UPDRS III)
Results: PD patients showed increased iron accumulation in substantia nigra (p<0.001), globus pallidus (p<0.01) and caudate nucleus (p<0.05) compared to ET and controls. PD and ET patients had higher iron in red nucleus (p<0.05) than controls. Iron in the substantia nigra positively correlated with UPDRS III total (p<0.01) as well as bradykinesia (p<0.01), rigidity (p<0.01) and axial (p<0.05) items but not with tremor scores. In addition, no significant associations were found between regional iron analysis in ET patients with tremor scores.
Conclusion: Increased regional nigral iron accumulation in PD is associated with dopaminergic-related symptoms. Tremor does not follow a specific iron deposition pattern neither in PD nor in ET patients
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
A. Martín-Bastida, I. Aviles-Olmos, A. Gorospe-Osinalde, V. Suarez-Vega, P. Dominguez-Echavarri, R. García-Eulate, C. Sánchez-Catasús, MC. Rodríguez-Oroz. Distinct deep grey matter iron accumulation in tremoric syndromes; an apparent quantitative susceptibility mapping mangetic resonance study [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2023; 38 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/distinct-deep-grey-matter-iron-accumulation-in-tremoric-syndromes-an-apparent-quantitative-susceptibility-mapping-mangetic-resonance-study/. Accessed June 14, 2025.« Back to 2023 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/distinct-deep-grey-matter-iron-accumulation-in-tremoric-syndromes-an-apparent-quantitative-susceptibility-mapping-mangetic-resonance-study/