Di Giuliano Francesca, Pucci Noemi, Serio Maria Lina, Picchi Eliseo, Minosse Silvia, Ferrazzoli Valentina, Da Ros Valerio, Schirinzi Tommaso, Conti Matteo, Bovenzi Roberta, Mascioli Davide, Garaci Francesco
Neuroradiology and Diagnostic Imaging Unit, Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy.
Unit of Neurology, Department of Systems Medicine, Tor Vergata University of Rome, 00133 Rome, Italy.
Diagnostics (Basel). 2025 Mar 25;15(7):841. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics15070841.
: Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by progressive neurodegeneration affecting both motor and non-motor functions. Identifying early alterations in PD patients before the onset of dopaminergic therapy is crucial for understanding disease progression and developing targeted interventions. This study aimed to investigate early changes in the putamen and thalamus in de novo PD patients using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) compared to healthy controls. : Thirty-one de novo PD patients and thirty-three healthy controls underwent DTI scanning. Tract-based spatial statistics were used to compare fractional anisotropy (FA) values between groups. : De novo PD patients exhibited significantly lower FA values in the right thalamus compared to controls, suggesting alterations in neuronal integrity or fiber degeneration in the early stages of the disease. However, no significant differences were demonstrated for FA values in the putamen between groups. : We demonstrated that the FA value in the right thalamus was lower in PD compared with healthy controls. These findings highlight the potential of DTI as a non-invasive tool for detecting early neural changes in PD patients. Further studies would be helpful to assess the clinical utility of serial FA measurements of the subcortical gray matter in objective quantification of disease progression and monitoring of the therapeutic response.
帕金森病（PD）的特征是进行性神经退行性变，影响运动和非运动功能。在多巴胺能治疗开始之前识别PD患者的早期改变对于理解疾病进展和制定针对性干预措施至关重要。本研究旨在使用扩散张量成像（DTI）研究初发PD患者壳核和丘脑的早期变化，并与健康对照进行比较。31例初发PD患者和33例健康对照接受了DTI扫描。基于体素的空间统计学方法用于比较两组之间的分数各向异性（FA）值。与对照组相比，初发PD患者右侧丘脑的FA值显著降低，提示在疾病早期神经元完整性或纤维变性发生改变。然而，两组之间壳核的FA值没有显著差异。我们证明，与健康对照相比，PD患者右侧丘脑的FA值较低。这些发现突出了DTI作为检测PD患者早期神经变化的非侵入性工具的潜力。进一步的研究将有助于评估对皮质下灰质进行系列FA测量在客观量化疾病进展和监测治疗反应方面的临床效用。
