Brain and Mind Centre and Discipline of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, School of Medical Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
UniSA Clinical and Health Sciences and Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity (ARENA), University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
PLoS One. 2021 Mar 1;16(3):e0247920. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247920. eCollection 2021.
Transcranial sonography is increasingly used to aid clinical diagnoses of movement disorders, for example, to identify an enlarged area of substantia nigra echogenicity in patients with Parkinson's disease.
The current study investigated characteristics of the midbrain at the anatomical plane for quantification of substantia nigra echogenicity. METHODS: Area of substantia nigra echogenicity, cross-sectional area of the midbrain, and interpeduncular angle were quantified in two groups of adults aged 18-50 years: 47 healthy non-drug-using controls (control group) and 22 individuals with a history of methamphetamine use (methamphetamine group), a cohort with a high prevalence of enlarged substantia nigra echogenicity and thus risk of Parkinson's disease.
In the control group, cross-sectional area of the midbrain (4.47±0.44 cm2) and interpeduncular angle were unaffected by age, sex, or image acquisition side. In the methamphetamine group, cross-sectional midbrain area (4.72±0.60 cm2) and area of substantia nigra echogenicity were enlarged compared to the control group, and the enlargement was sex-dependent (larger in males than females). Whole midbrain area and interpeduncular angle were found to be weak predictors of area of substantia nigra echogenicity after accounting for group and sex.
History of methamphetamine use is associated with an enlarged midbrain and area of substantia nigra echogenicity, and the abnormality is more pronounced in males than females. Thus, males may be more susceptible to methamphetamine-induced changes to the brainstem, and risk of Parkinson's disease, than females.
经颅超声检查越来越多地用于辅助运动障碍的临床诊断，例如，识别帕金森病患者黑质回声增强的扩大区域。
本研究调查了中脑解剖平面定量黑质回声特征。
在两组年龄在 18-50 岁的成年人中定量分析黑质回声增强区域、中脑横截面积和脚间窝角：47 名健康、未使用药物的对照者（对照组）和 22 名有甲基苯丙胺使用史的个体（甲基苯丙胺组），该队列黑质回声增强扩大的患病率较高，因此帕金森病的风险也较高。
在对照组中，中脑横截面积（4.47±0.44cm2）和脚间窝角不受年龄、性别或图像采集侧的影响。在甲基苯丙胺组中，与对照组相比，中脑横截面积（4.72±0.60cm2）和黑质回声增强面积增大，且这种增大具有性别依赖性（男性比女性更大）。在考虑到组间和性别因素后，全中脑面积和脚间窝角被发现是黑质回声增强面积的弱预测因子。
甲基苯丙胺使用史与中脑增大和黑质回声增强面积增大有关，且异常在男性中比女性中更为明显。因此，与女性相比，男性可能更容易受到甲基苯丙胺对脑干的影响，以及帕金森病的风险。
