Session Information
Date: Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Session Title: Neuroimaging (Non-PD)
Session Time: 1:15pm-2:45pm
Location: Exhibit Hall C
Objective: Our studies was designed to assess the dopaminergic pathway in the patients with vascular parkinsonism (VP).
Background: VP develops as a consequence of heterogeneous groups of cerebrovascular diseases and it presents as gait disturbance, rigidity, bradykinesia and posture instability. Varying degrees of white matter lesions and lacunar infarcts are observed in the VP patients but similar findings were found frequently in elderly hypertensive patients without parkinsonian symptoms. Previous dopamine transport neuroimaging and clinicopathological study did not have the consistent findings. We applied the 18F-DTBZ PET to investigate the nigrostriatal integrity, and the relationship between dopamine transmission and clinical symptoms.
Methods: Five patients with clinical diagnosis of probable VP and 5 age matched healthy subjects were recruited in the study, and underwent the 18F-DTBZ PET scans. Neurological examination, motor, gait and cognitive assessment were performed for each subjects. The regional specific uptake ratios (SUR) of the 18F-DTBZ PET images were compared between VP and control groups. The FOG questionnaire was used to represent the gait disturbance and we analyzed the correlation between regional SUR and FOG questionnaire.
Results: The SUR of bilateral substantia nigra and whole brainstem in the VP patients were significantly higher than that in healthy subjects (p < 0.01 in substantia nigra, p < 0.05 in brainstem). The Spearman’s correlation coefficient demonstrated that significant negative correlation between of the SUR of brainstem and FOG questionnaire (γs = -0.9, n = 5, p = 0.037).
Conclusions: The nigrostriatal integrity is intact in the patients with VP. The increased vesicular monoamine transporter type 2 activities in VP may explain the compensatory capacity of presynaptic dopamine synthesis. Compensation of dopamine synthesis probably prevent the deterioration of gait disturbance. Further large cohort studies with gait analysis is mandatory to verified the novel findings in VP.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
W.-Y. Lin, Y.-H. Weng, K.-J. Lin, C.-S. Lu. Preliminary results of 18F-DTBZ PET study in the patients with vascular parkinsonism [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2017; 32 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/preliminary-results-of-18f-dtbz-pet-study-in-the-patients-with-vascular-parkinsonism/. Accessed June 14, 2025.« Back to 2017 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/preliminary-results-of-18f-dtbz-pet-study-in-the-patients-with-vascular-parkinsonism/