Objective: To analyze whether the size of SN+ is differentially affected depending on disease start side. Secondly to analyze the interaction between a range of clinical parameters and SN+ with a focus on the asymmetry of the disease.

Background: Substantia nigra hyperechogenicity (SN+) is used to support the clinical diagnosis of Parkinson disease (PD). Although there is considerable variation in the extent of substantia nigra (SN) echogenic signals among patients, previous work suggests that SN+ is a stable marker throughout the course of the disease. In this study, we found that higher scores are related to the start-side SN+ hyperechogenicity. Furthermore, we show that elder patients have lower SN+ in average.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 300 PD patients and 200 healthy controls. SN+ was measured planimetrically by transcranial sonography. Echogenicity was analyzed separately for onset and non-onset sides with onset side defined as the SN that is contralateral to the side of the body that first manifested PD related motor impairment.

Results: We found that the onset SN+ contralateral to the side of initial motor symptoms was on average 17.6 % larger than its counterpart. However we found that contrary to the control group, where an increase in age was associated with an increase in size of SN+, age of PD patients was associated with a decline in size of the onset SN+.

Conclusions: The present study demonstrates that SN+ has a different dynamic depending on the start side of the disease. Furthermore, elderly patients have lower scores in average.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-effect-of-age-on-substantia-nigra-hyperechogenicity-in-pd-patients-and-healthy-controls/