PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Antonio Martin-Bastida
AU  - Stefan Schwarz
AU  - Yue Xing
AU  - Sara Pietracupa
AU  - David Burn
AU  - Monty Silverdale
AU  - Nin Bajaj
AU  - Donald Grosset
AU  - Dorothee Auer
AU  - Piccini Paola
TI  - NEUROMELANIN-SENSITIVE RESONANCE IMAGING AS A PARKINSON'S DISEASE BIOMARKER
AID  - 10.1136/jnnp-2016-315106.107
DP  - 2016 Dec 01
TA  - Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry
PG  - e1--e1
VI  - 87
IP  - 12
4099  - http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/87/12/e1.10.short
4100  - http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/87/12/e1.10.full
SO  - J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry2016 Dec 01; 87
AB  - Introduction Neuromelanin-sensitive (NM) magnetic resonance imaging visualizes dopaminergic neuronal loss in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) in Parkinson's disease (PD), and may be a useful diagnostic markerMethods Fifty-five patients with early stage PD and 12 age-matched healthy volunteers (HV) underwent 3T MR scanning. SNc volumes were determined according to the threshold of background signal intensity+3SD. SNc volumes were also compared between HV and three PD sub-groups as divided by UPDRS 3 scores with tertile calculations, using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), adjusting by regional volumes and age.Results PD patients showed marked reductions of SNc volumes compared to HV (p<0.001). Within the PD group, nigral volume reductions were consistent for clinical laterality (p<0.05). Nigral volumes inversely correlated with UPDRS 3 (p<0.01), and were lowest in PD patients in the worst tertile for motor severity, compared to the more mildly affected PD cases (p<0.05) and HV groups (p<0.001).Discussion Our results confirm that NM-sensitive MR imaging helps distinguish early PD from healthy volunteers. In addition, the significant relationship between nigral volume and motor severity suggests that the method could be developed as a disease biomarker.