Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Multiple regional 1H-MR spectroscopy in multiple system atrophy: NAA/Cr reduction in pontine base as a valuable diagnostic marker
  1. H Watanabe1,
  2. H Fukatsu2,
  3. M Katsuno1,
  4. M Sugiura1,
  5. K Hamada1,
  6. Y Okada1,
  7. M Hirayama1,
  8. T Ishigaki2,
  9. G Sobue1
  1. 1Department of Neurology, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan
  2. 2Department of Radiology, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan
  1. Correspondence to:
 Gen Sobue
 MD, Department of Neurology, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya 466-8550 Japan; sobuegmed.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Abstract

Objective: We performed 1H-MR spectroscopy (1H-MRS) on multiple brain regions to determine the metabolite pattern and diagnostic utility of 1H-MRS in multiple system atrophy (MSA).

Methods: Examining single voxels at 3.0 T, we studied metabolic findings of the putamen, pontine base, and cerebral white matter in 24 MSA patients (predominant cerebellar ataxia (MSA-C), n = 13), parkinsonism (MSA-P), n = 11), in 11 age and duration matched Parkinson’s disease patients (PD) and in 18 age matched control subjects.

Results: The N-acetylaspartate to creatine ratio (NAA/Cr) in MSA patients showed a significant reduction in the pontine base (p<0.0001) and putamen (p = 0.02) compared with controls. NAA/Cr in cerebral white matter also tended to decline in long standing cases. NAA/Cr reduction in the pontine base was prominent in both MSA-P (p<0.0001) and MSA-C (p<0.0001), and putaminal NAA/Cr reduction was significant in MSA-P (p = 0.009). It was also significant in patients who were in an early phase of their disease, and in those who showed no ataxic symptoms or parkinsonism, or did not show any MRI abnormality of the “hot cross bun” sign or hyperintense putaminal rims. NAA/Cr in MSA-P patients was significantly reduced in the pontine base (p = 0.001) and putamen (p = 0.002) compared with PD patients. The combined 1H-MRS in the putamen and pontine base served to distinguish patients with MSA-P from PD more clearly.

Conclusions:1H-MRS showed widespread neuronal and axonal involvement in MSA. The NAA/Cr reduction in the pontine base proved highly informative in the early diagnosis of MSA prior to MRI changes and even before any clinical manifestation of symptoms.

  • multiple system atrophy (MSA)
  • Parkinson’s disease
  • proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS)
  • Pontine base
  • Cho, choline
  • Cr, creatine
  • CWM, cerebral white matter
  • HCB, “hot cross bun”
  • HPR, hyperintense rim
  • MRI, magnetic resonance imaging
  • MRS, magnetic resonance spectroscopy
  • MSA, multiple system atrophy
  • MSA-C, multiple system atrophy with cerebellar ataxia predominant
  • MSA-P, multiple system atrophy with parkinsonism predominant
  • NAA, N-acetylaspartate
  • PD, Parkinson’s disease
  • SNR, signal to noise ratio
  • VOI, volume of interest

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Footnotes

  • Competing interest: none declared