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Aberrant nigral diffusion in Parkinson's disease: A longitudinal diffusion tensor imaging study
Author(s) -
Loane Clare,
Politis Marios,
Kefalopoulou Zinovia,
ValleGuzman Natalie,
Paul Gesine,
Widner Hakan,
Foltynie Thomas,
Barker Roger A.,
Piccini Paola
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
movement disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.352
H-Index - 198
eISSN - 1531-8257
pISSN - 0885-3185
DOI - 10.1002/mds.26606
Subject(s) - fractional anisotropy , diffusion mri , parkinson's disease , medicine , biomarker , disease , effective diffusion coefficient , psychology , magnetic resonance imaging , radiology , chemistry , biochemistry
Background Measuring microstructure alterations with diffusion tensor imaging in PD is potentially a valuable tool to use as a biomarker for early diagnosis and to track disease progression. Previous studies have reported a specific decrease of nigral fractional anisotropy in PD. However, to date the effect of disease progression on nigral or striatal diffusion indices has not been fully explored. Methods We have conducted a cross‐sectional and longitudinal diffusion tensor imaging study in 18 early stage, treated PD patients and 14 age‐matched controls. PD patients were scanned on 2 occasions OFF medication, 19.3 months apart (standard deviation = 3.1 months). Longitudinal change of regional nigral and striatal measures of fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity were calculated using a region‐of‐interest approach. Results Region‐of‐interest analysis demonstrated that at baseline, PD patients and controls did not differ in regard to diffusion indices in any region assessed. A significant difference of nigral fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity between controls and PD patients at follow‐up was detected and confirmed with longitudinal analysis within PD patients. Alterations in striatal regions were not detected in either group or over time. Conclusion Our findings indicate that nigral diffusion measure may be a valuable measure of disease progression. In the future, larger longitudinal studies will confirm whether diffusion indices may serve as sensitive and clinically meaningful measures of disease progression in PD. © 2016 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society