Premium
Reduced brain glutamate in patients with Parkinson's disease
Author(s) -
Griffith H. Randall,
Okonkwo Ozioma C.,
O'Brien Timothy,
Hollander Jan A. den
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
nmr in biomedicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.278
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1099-1492
pISSN - 0952-3480
DOI - 10.1002/nbm.1203
Subject(s) - phosphocreatine , creatine , glutamate receptor , glutamine , parkinson's disease , medicine , choline , posterior cingulate , neuropathology , endocrinology , cortex (anatomy) , disease , neuroscience , receptor , psychology , chemistry , biochemistry , energy metabolism , amino acid
An understanding of the role played by glutamate (Glu) in idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) has remained somewhat elusive. Animal models of PD suggest that over‐activity of Glu receptors complicates the motor symptoms of PD and that Glu blockade may be a pharmacologic target in PD, whereas patient autopsy studies have proved less convincing for changes in Glu. No previous 1 H MRS patient studies have documented changes in glutamate. All but one of these previous studies were performed at 1.5 T. We performed 3 T 1 H MRS of the posterior cingulate gyrus in 12 non‐demented patients with PD and 12 age‐matched, neurologically normal control participants. Glu, N ‐acetylaspartate (NAA) and choline‐containing compounds (Cho) measured in reference to creatine + phosphocreatine (Cr) were determined from single‐voxel proton MR spectra measured by PRESS at TE of 80 ms. The results show that the Glu/Cr ratio was reduced in patients with PD compared with controls ( t = 2.54; P = 0.019), whereas no differences were observed in NAA/Cr or Cho/Cr ratios. These findings suggest that a reduction in Glu occurs in the cerebral cortex of patients with PD. 1 H MRS at 3 T should be investigated in future studies as a means of tracking the course of metabolic brain changes in association with progression of disease in patients with PD. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.