Neurodegeneration Imaging Group, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London, London, UK.
National Parkinson Foundation International Centre of Excellence, Department of Basic & Clinical Neuroscience, King's College London and Kings College Hospital, London, UK.
BMC Neurosci. 2019 Oct 22;20(1):55. doi: 10.1186/s12868-019-0537-1.
Non-motor symptoms are common aspects of Parkinson's disease (PD) occurring even at the prodromal stage of the disease and greatly affecting the quality of life. Here, we investigated whether non-motor symptoms burden was associated with cortical thickness and subcortical nuclei volume in PD patients.
We studied 41 non-demented PD patients. Non-motor symptoms burden was assessed using the Non-Motor Symptoms Scale grading (NMSS). Cortical thickness and subcortical nuclei volume analyses were carried out using Free-Surfer. PD patients were divided into two groups according to the NMSS grading: mild to moderate (NMSS: 0-40) and severe (NMSS: ≥ 41) non-motor symptoms.
Thalamic atrophy was associated with higher NMSQ and NMSS total scores. The non-motor symptoms that drove this correlation were sleep/fatigue and gastrointestinal tract dysfunction. We also found that PD patients with severe non-motor symptoms had significant thalamic atrophy compared to the group with mild to moderate non-motor symptoms.
Our findings show that greater non-motor symptom burden is associated with thalamic atrophy in PD. Thalamus plays an important role in processing sensory information including visceral afferent from the gastrointestinal tract and in regulating states of sleep and wakefulness.
非运动症状是帕金森病（PD）的常见方面，即使在疾病的前驱期也会出现，并极大地影响生活质量。在这里，我们研究了非运动症状负担是否与 PD 患者的皮质厚度和皮质下核体积有关。
我们研究了 41 名非痴呆 PD 患者。使用非运动症状量表分级（NMSS）评估非运动症状负担。使用 Free-Surfer 进行皮质厚度和皮质下核体积分析。根据 NMSS 分级将 PD 患者分为两组：轻度至中度（NMSS：0-40）和重度（NMSS：≥41）非运动症状。
丘脑萎缩与较高的 NMSQ 和 NMSS 总分相关。驱动这种相关性的非运动症状是睡眠/疲劳和胃肠道功能障碍。我们还发现，与轻度至中度非运动症状组相比，有严重非运动症状的 PD 患者的丘脑明显萎缩。
我们的研究结果表明，更大的非运动症状负担与 PD 中的丘脑萎缩有关。丘脑在处理包括来自胃肠道的内脏传入的感觉信息以及调节睡眠和觉醒状态方面发挥着重要作用。
