Department of Neurology, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 222, Banpo-daero, Seocho-gu, 06591, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Department of Radiology, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Neurol Sci. 2021 Feb;42(2):711-718. doi: 10.1007/s10072-020-04859-8. Epub 2020 Oct 31.
Neuropsychiatric symptoms are relatively common in Parkinson's disease (PD). Many studies have revealed that striatal monoamine availability is associated with specific neuropsychiatric symptoms. This study was aimed to investigate the association between comprehensive neuropsychiatric symptoms and striatal monoamine availability in patients with early PD without dementia.
A total of 156 newly diagnosed patients with PD without dementia were included. All patients' mental and behavioral problems were assessed with the 12-item Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI). They underwent positron emission tomography (PET) with F-N-(3-fluoropropyl)-2beta-carbon ethoxy-3beta-(4-iodophenyl) nortropane and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Patients were divided into no neuropsychiatric symptoms and neuropsychiatric symptoms groups according to total NPI score. After normalizing the PET images to spatially normalized MRI, regional standardized uptake value ratios (SUVRs) with a volume of interest template were analyzed for the two groups.
Ninety-eight patients had more than one neuropsychiatric symptom. The SUVR of the thalamus in neuropsychiatric symptoms group was significantly lower than the SUVR in no neuropsychiatric symptoms group independent of age, sex, disease duration, or severity of motor symptoms.
Patients with early PD who have neuropsychiatric symptoms had a lower monoamine availability in the thalamus than those with no neuropsychiatric symptoms. This finding suggests that decreased monoamine transporter availability in the thalamus may be an imaging biomarker of neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with PD.
神经精神症状在帕金森病（PD）中较为常见。许多研究表明，纹状体单胺能的可用性与特定的神经精神症状有关。本研究旨在探讨无痴呆的早期 PD 患者综合神经精神症状与纹状体单胺能可用性之间的关系。
共纳入 156 例无痴呆的新发 PD 患者。所有患者的精神和行为问题均采用 12 项神经精神问卷（NPI）进行评估。他们接受了 F-N-（3-氟丙基）-2β-碳乙氧基-3β-（4-碘苯基）去甲托烷和脑磁共振成像（MRI）的正电子发射断层扫描（PET）。根据总 NPI 评分，将患者分为无神经精神症状组和神经精神症状组。对 PET 图像进行空间标准化 MRI 归一化后，使用感兴趣区模板分析两组的区域标准化摄取比值（SUVR）。
98 例患者存在一种以上的神经精神症状。神经精神症状组的丘脑 SUVR 明显低于无神经精神症状组，与年龄、性别、病程或运动症状严重程度无关。
有神经精神症状的早期 PD 患者丘脑单胺能可用性较无神经精神症状者降低。这一发现提示，丘脑单胺转运体可用性降低可能是 PD 患者神经精神症状的影像学生物标志物。
