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Gray matter density and striatal dopamine transporter were evaluated in patients with Parkinson’s disease using simultaneous 18F-FP-CIT PET/MR. Voxelwise correlation analysis between dopamine transporter binding ratio revealed the relationship between global structural changes and the degeneration of striatal dopaminergic circuits in PD.​

Abstract

Dopaminergic degeneration is a hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD), which causes various symptoms affected by corticostriatal circuits. So far, the relationship between cortical changes and dopamine loss in the striatum is unclear. Here, we evaluate the gray matter (GM) changes in accordance with striatal dopaminergic degeneration in PD using hybrid PET/MR. Sixteen patients with idiopathic PD underwent (18) F-FP-CIT PET/MR. To measure dopaminergic degeneration in PD, binding ratio (BR) of dopamine transporter in striatum was evaluated by (18) F-FP-CIT. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to evaluate GM density. We obtained voxelwise correlation maps of GM density according to the striatal BR. Voxel-by-voxel correlation between BR maps and GM density maps was done to evaluate region-specific correlation of striatal dopaminergic degeneration. There was a trend of positive correlation between striatal BR and GM density in the cerebellum, parahippocampal gyri, and frontal cortex. A trend of negative correlation between striatal BR and GM density in the medial occipital cortex was found. Voxel-by-voxel correlation revealed that the positive correlation was mainly dependent on anterior striatal BR, while posterior striatal BR mostly showed negative correlation with GM density in occipital and temporal cortices. Decreased GM density related to anterior striatal dopaminergic degeneration might demonstrate degeneration of dopaminergic nonmotor circuits. Furthermore, the negative correlation could be related to the motor circuits of posterior striatum. Our integrated PET/MR study suggests that the widespread structural progressive changes in PD could denote the cortical functional correlates of the degeneration of striatal dopaminergic circuits.  

Author information​

Choi H1, Cheon GJ1,2, Kim HJ3, Choi SH4,5, Kim YI1,6, Kang KW1,2, Chung JK1,2, Kim EE6,7, Lee DS1,6.

1Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea.

2Cancer Research Institute, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.

3Department of Neurology and Movement Disorder Center, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea.

4Department of Radiology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

5Center for Nanoparticle Research, Institute for Basic Science, and School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.

6Department of Molecular Medicine and Biopharmaceutical Science, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.

7Department of Radiological Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA.