Category: Parkinson's Disease: Neuroimaging
Objective: We aimed to investigate sex differences in brain atrophy and cognition in PD de novo patients through MRI subcortical volumetry and cortical thickness (CTh).
Background: Brain atrophy and cognitive impairment in neurodegenerative diseases are influenced by sex. In advanced PD sex male is a contributing factor for increased neurodegeneration. However, little is known about structural brain atrophy and cognitive differences according to sex in PD de novo patients.
Method: Clinical, neuropsychological and MRI raw data were obtained from the Parkinson’s Progression Marker Initiative database. The sample was composed by 205 PD patients (127 males:78 females) and 69 healthy controls (HC) (40 males:29 females) [table1]. FreeSurfer was used to obtain volumetric and cortical CTh measures.
Results: Clinically, PD males had greater more motor impairment, rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder symptomatology and olfaction deficits than PD females [table1]. Neuropsychologically, PD and HC males performed worse than females in semantic fluency and verbal memory. Furthermore, PD males performed worse than females in global cognition and speed of mental processing. Males outperformed females in both groups only in spatial functions [fig1]. MRI analyses showed greater global cortical and subcortical gray matter atrophy in males than females in the PD group. In deep gray matter nuclei, PD showed significant smaller volumes in males respect to female in brainstem, thalamus, caudate, putamen, pallidum and hippocampus. In HC, there were only significant differences in the hippocampus [table2]. Maps of CTh, revealed that PD males had thinning in left postcentral and right precentral regions compared with PD females [fig2].
Conclusion: Sex effect in cognitive impairment and brain atrophy is already evident in PD de novo, this suggests that sex is a relevant factor to be taken in account in clinical and translational research in PD even in the initial phases of the disease.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
J. Oltra, C. Uribe, A. Campabadal, A. Inguanzo, G. Monté-Rubio, M. Marti, Y. Compta, F. Valldeoriola, C. Junque, B. Segura. Sex differences in brain and cognition in de novo PD patients [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2021; 36 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/sex-differences-in-brain-and-cognition-in-de-novo-pd-patients/. Accessed June 15, 2025.« Back to MDS Virtual Congress 2021
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/sex-differences-in-brain-and-cognition-in-de-novo-pd-patients/