Objective: We performed cognitive function tests and dopamine transporter (DAT) SPECT in patients with PD (Parkinson’s disease) to see whether there is a relationship between cognitive functions and DAT SPECT findings in PD.

Background: Cognitive impairment is commonly observed in patients with PD and can be a target for a cognitive rehabilitation in PD. Furthermore, it sometimes hampers a rehabilitation training of motor function. Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (RBMT) is a practically useful test for evaluating memory impairment in a daily living and is recently used for assessing one of the cognitive impairments in PD. The striatum clinically coordinates motor planning, decision-making and reward perception together with procedural memory. Because DAT SPECT is a useful imaging tool to assess the function of the striatum, it is meaningful to perform DAT SPECT when we estimate motor and cognitive impairments in PD. However, a relationship between cognitive impairment assessed by RBMT and DAT SPECT findings in PD remain to be clarified.

Methods: We enrolled 12 patients with PD (8 males and 4 females, average age: 64.8±11.8 years, duration of the illness: 2.6±2.4 years, Hoehn-Yahr (H-Y) stage: 2.3±1.0). Cognitive functions were assessed using by the RBMT, MoCA-J (Japanese version of MoCA) ant the Trail Making Test (TMT) parts A and B. Striatal FP-CIT uptake was assessed by Specific Binding Ratio (SBR) on DAT SPECT. Clinical information, the findings of the cognitive function tests, and the SBR were compared each other.

Results: SBR were negatively correlated with the age, H-Y stage, the duration of illness and the findings of TMT parts A and B, and were positively correlated with the total score of MoCA-J, the screening score of RBMT (all items; p< 0.05).

Conclusions: These results indicate that DAT SPECT findings are closely related to the findings of RBMT. Furthermore, DAT SPECT findings are also related to the findings of MoCA-J, RBMT and TMT as well as motor function. Therefore, DAT SPECT is a useful imaging tool to estimate cognitive impairment and motor function for rehabilitation training of motor function and cognitive impairment in PD.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/relationship-between-cognitive-functions-and-striatal-123i-fp-cit-uptake-in-parkinsons-disease/