Category: Parkinson's Disease: Neuroimaging
Objective: To determine the value of MRI-derived cerebrovascular metrics and their relationship with global cognitive impairment in Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Background: Cognitive impairment is a significant non-motor symptom of PD and cerebrovascular health may play an important role in this process. Two MRI-derived measures of cerebrovascular health are cerebral blood flow (CBF) and the spatial coefficient of variation (sCoV) of CBF maps, with sCoV reflecting the time taken for labelled blood to reach the tissue in the brain. We used CBF and sCoV to investigate the relationship between cerebrovascular health and cognitive decline in PD.
Method: 185 PD participants, representing a broad spectrum of cognitive decline, and 49 healthy controls were recruited. All participants completed Level-II cognitive testing to assess global cognitive ability. Average CBF and sCoV values were calculated in the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes using arterial spin labelling (ASL) MRI. Bayesian models were used to investigate both global and lobar CBF and sCoV. We tested for evidence of variation in CBF and sCOV by group (PD and control), differences between cognitive categories (control, PD with normal cognition, PD mild cognitive impairment and PD dementia), and association with a continuous measure of global cognitive ability.
Results: There was reduction in CBF and increase in sCoV in the parietal and occipital lobes in PD patients relative to controls. Average grey matter CBF decreased and sCoV increased with worsening cognitive ability. Although we identified a significant association with cognitive ability, CBF and sCoV provided little additional predictive value of an individual’s cognitive status, beyond age and sex alone.
Conclusion: Our results suggest a relationship between global cognitive ability, cerebral perfusion, and large vessel disease in PD. However, the utility of CBF and sCoV for predicting current and future cognitive ability at the individual level requires further research.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
D. Nolan, D. Myall, C. Morgan, R. Shoorangiz, L. Livingston, S. Grenfell, T. Pitcher, M. Macaskill, K-L. Horne, C. Le Heron, S. Marsh, J. Dalrymple-Alford, T. Anderson, T. Melzr. MRI to investigate cerebrovascular changes in Parkinson’s disease [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2022; 37 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/mri-to-investigate-cerebrovascular-changes-in-parkinsons-disease/. Accessed May 13, 2025.« Back to 2022 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/mri-to-investigate-cerebrovascular-changes-in-parkinsons-disease/