Dopamine transporter positron emission tomography in patients with Alzheimer’s disease with Lewy body disease features

Abstract

In 36 normal controls (NC), 37 patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) without parkinsonism (ADP-), 31 AD with parkinsonism (ADP+), and 40 AD with dementia with Lewy bodies (ADDLB), dual-phase dopamine transporter (DAT) positron emission tomography (PET) were performed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of DAT and early-to-delayed uptake ratios (E/Ds) in the anterior caudate (AC), posterior caudate (PC), anterior putamen (AP), posterior putamen (PP), and substantia nigra (SN) to differentiate ADP+/ADDLB from NC, and their effects on parkinsonism and cognition. DAT-SN and E/D-PP showed higher accuracies to differentiate ADP+/ADDLB from NC than DAT-PP. Among AD patients, lower DAT in the putamen and PC and higher E/Ds in the striatum were associated with severe parkinsonism, while higher E/Ds in the putamen, PC, and SN were associated with executive dysfunction. Our results suggest that decreased DAT-SN and increased E/D-PP could be biomarkers differentiating ADP+/ADDLB from pure AD and controls. Meanwhile, increased E/Ds in the putamen could reflect the severity of DLB presenting with parkinsonism and executive dysfunction among AD patients.