Category: Other
Objective: To investigate the nigrostriatal pathway in iNPH patients with clinical parkinsonism, employing dopaminergic transporter (DAT) and nigrosome imaging.
Background: Patients with idiopathic Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (iNPH) may exhibit parkinsonism, but it is uncertain whether the parkinsonian features are inherent to the clinical syndrome of iNPH or result from a concurrent α-synucleinopathy.
Method: 20 iNPH patients with parkinsonism underwent dopaminergic imaging and 3T brain MRI. Additionally, 20 early Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients were included for DAT imaging comparison (Table 1).
Results: Among the iNPH patients with parkinsonism, none displayed nigrosome-1 loss, but over 40% showed reduced DAT uptake, exhibiting a distinct striatal dopamine loss pattern compared to PD (Figure 1). A negative correlation between left striatum DAT binding and motor severity was observed in iNPH.
Conclusion: Preserved nigrosome integrity suggests that parkinsonism in iNPH may arise from mechanical nigrostriatal pathway disruption. An abnormality on dopaminergic imaging should not be an exclusion criterion for shunting.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
G. Palermo, A. Francesconi, G. Bellini, R. Morganti, G. Migaleddu, D. Di Carlo, P. Perrini, N. Benedetto, C. Pacchetti, D. Volterrani, M. Cosottini, R. Ceravolo. Imaging the Nigrostriatal Pathway in Patients with Idiopathic Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus and Parkinsonism [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2024; 39 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/imaging-the-nigrostriatal-pathway-in-patients-with-idiopathic-normal-pressure-hydrocephalus-and-parkinsonism/. Accessed October 7, 2024.« Back to 2024 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/imaging-the-nigrostriatal-pathway-in-patients-with-idiopathic-normal-pressure-hydrocephalus-and-parkinsonism/