Category: Parkinson's disease: Neuroimaging
Objective: To investigate cognitive trajectories in Parkinson’s disease with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) patients undergoing subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) and to examine whether baseline white-matter microstructure assessed by diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is associated with subsequent cognitive outcomes.
Background: In PD-MCI, approximately 10-20% of patients may return to normal cognitive function within 2-5 years; however, the characteristics and predictors of this transition remain unclear.
Method: 51 PD patients (age 63.9 +/- 5.8) who met the Movement Disorder Society diagnostic criteria and underwent STN-DBS were enrolled. Cognitive function was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Japanese version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-J) before and after DBS surgery, with a minimum interval of six months. Based on cognitive assessments, patients were categorized into three groups: cognitively normal controls who maintained normal cognition (NC, n=24), PD-MCI patients who reverted to normal cognition (reverters; REV, n=15), and PD-MCI patients who did not revert (non-reverters; n=12). Diffusion MRI was performed at baseline, and both whole-brain voxel-wise analysis using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) and region-of-interest analyses were conducted.
Results: Whole-brain voxel-wise analysis demonstrated more extensive baseline white-matter microstructural abnormalities in the non-reverter group compared with the reverter group. Region-of-interest analysis revealed that radial diffusivity (RDt) of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF) was significantly higher in nREV than in REV (3.22e-4 +/- 4.90e-6 vs 3.07e-4 +/- 5.48e-6, p = 0.048).
Conclusion: White-matter microstructure may serve as a potential imaging biomarker for predicting future cognitive outcomes in PD-MCI patients undergoing STN-DBS.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
E. Igami, H. Takeshige-Amano, K. Takabayashi, S. Ueno, R. Kamo, D. Samayoa, W. Sako, T. Ogawa, H. Iwamuro, A. Umemura, G. Oyama, S. Aoki, K. Kamagata, N. Hattori, T. Hatano. Predictors of cognitive trajectories in Parkinson’s disease with mild cognitive impairment after STN-DBS: a diffusion MRI study [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2026; 41 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/predictors-of-cognitive-trajectories-in-parkinsons-disease-with-mild-cognitive-impairment-after-stn-dbs-a-diffusion-mri-study/. Accessed October 1, 2026.« Back to 2026 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/predictors-of-cognitive-trajectories-in-parkinsons-disease-with-mild-cognitive-impairment-after-stn-dbs-a-diffusion-mri-study/