Table 7 Dopaminergic basis of NMSS Domain 9 (miscellaneous) pathophysiology in PD

From: Presynaptic dopaminergic terminal imaging and non-motor symptoms assessment of Parkinson’s disease: evidence for dopaminergic basis?

Author

Year

NMS

Radiotracer

Demographics

Results

Analysis

Bohnen et al.175

2007

Olfactory

11C-β-CIT

27 PD patients and 27 healthy controls underwent UPSIT testing.

The authors present evidence of significant correlations between dorsal striatal DaT excitation and total UPSIT (R(S) = 0.44, p = 0.023) scores.

Therefore, PD-hyposmia may have dopaminergic basis to its pathophysiology. This is an important controlled study addressing olfaction and a possible dopaminergic basis. The study does however have variation in their patients which were not accounted for, such as some being drug naïve, some newly diagnosed, and other on several mediations.

Berendse et al.178

2011

Olfactory

123I-FP-CIT

96 PD patients underwent UPSIT

Olfactory deficit in PD correlated with striatal DaT binding in the most affected putamen and caudate nucleus (p = 0.03), and least affected putamen and caudate nucleus (p = 0.01).

This is a large uncontrolled study, adding to the observations of Bohnen et al 2007, suggesting that dopaminergic dysfunction occurs in early hyposmic PD pathogenesis. The study sample had differences in treatment which were not reported, nor were results analysed with treatment as independent variables, which may provide interesting results.

Lee et al.209

2016

Weight

18F-DOPA

398 PD patients underwent imaging, BMI measurements

All sub regions of the striatum demonstrated a significant positive correlation with BMI as follows: anterior putamen (r = 0.159, p = 0.001), posterior putamen (r = 0.126, p = 0.012), ventral striatum (r = 0.136, p = 0.007), caudate nucleus (r = 0.15, p = 0.003), and total striatum (r = 0.161, p = 0.001).

This study suggests that low BMI may correlate with dopaminergic dysfunction in PD. Patients with BMI less than 18.5 had even lower striatal DaT activity, suggesting effects of undernourishment on dopaminergic function. This is an important and thus far a unique study with a very large sample size addressing body weight and PD. Altered body weight now thought to be a possible predictor of dyskinesia’s as well as prognostic marker.

  1. 123 I-b-CIT [(123)I]2beta-carbomethoxy-3-(4-iodophenyl)tropane, 123 I-FP-CIT [123I]-2β-carbomethoxy-3β-(4-iodophenyl)-N-(3-fluoropropyl) nortropane, 18 F-DOPA 18F-dihydroxyphenylalanine, BMI body mass index, DaT dopamine transporter, PD parkinson’s disease, UPSIT smell identification test
Back to article page