Category: Parkinson's Disease: Neuroimaging
Objective: This aim of this study was to investigate how dopamine depletion of different striatal subregions contributes to motor symptoms in patients with prodromal and clinical Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Background: The association between PD related striatal dopamine depletion and motor dysfunction is well documented, yet a more fine-grained, differential understanding of the role of individual striatal subregions is still missing.
Method: Neuroimaging and behavioral data of 279 prodromal and 285 clinical PD patients were downloaded from the Parkinson’s Progression Marker Initiative (www.ppmi-info.org). Standardized uptake value ratios (SUVRs) were extracted from dopamine transporter SPECTs using the Oxford-GSK-Imanova Striatal Connectivity Atlas, which segments the striatum into a sensorimotor, executive, and limbic region. MDS-UPDRS-III scores were used to quantify motor symptoms. First, regional SUVRs were compared between groups and correlated with motor scores. Next, the prodromal and the clinical group were matched according to their sensorimotor SUVRs and afterwards, executive and limbic SUVRs of these matched groups were compared. Finally, moderation analyses were performed to assess whether executive or limbic SUVRs influence the association between sensorimotor dopamine depletion and motor dysfunction in the clinical group.
Results: SUVRs of all three striatal subregions significantly decreased with disease progression. More diminished sensorimotor SUVRs were associated with worse motor scores. In the matched groups, neither the executive nor the limbic SUVRs were significantly different. Moreover, no significant moderation effect of either executive or limbic SUVRs was found regarding the relationship between sensorimotor SUVRs and motor scores in the clinical cohort.
Conclusion: Dopamine loss in the sensorimotor striatum is strongly connected to motor dysfunction in PD. However, at least in de-novo PD patients, this relationship does not seem to be influenced by dopaminergic degeneration in the executive or limbic striatal subregion.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
M. Banwinkler, M. Hoenig, V. Dzialas, T. van Eimeren. Dopamine depletion of striatal subregions and motor dysfunction in prodromal and clinical Parkinson’s disease [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2023; 38 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/dopamine-depletion-of-striatal-subregions-and-motor-dysfunction-in-prodromal-and-clinical-parkinsons-disease/. Accessed June 14, 2025.« Back to 2023 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/dopamine-depletion-of-striatal-subregions-and-motor-dysfunction-in-prodromal-and-clinical-parkinsons-disease/