Parkinson's disease: diffusion kurtosis imaging and the correlation with clinical manifestations

Abstract

Objective: Using magnetic resonance diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) to evaluate the microstructure changes of deep brain nucleus in Parkinson's disease (PD) as well as the correlation with clinical manifestations. Methods: Thirty-two PD patients were recruited into this study. Twenty gender and age matched healthy subjects served as the control group. All participants underwent MRI examinations, including T(1)WI, T(2)WI, DWI, susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) and DKI. The original DKI imaging data were processed offline to calculate two parametric maps, including mean kurtosis (MK) value and fractional anisotropy (FA) value. Two DKI parameters measured from head of substantia nigra were compared between the two groups using t-test or Mann-Whitney U test according to data distribution. The correlations of the two DKI parameters in the substantia nigra of PD patients with the disease duration and clinical scales were tested by Spearmen or Pearson analysis according to data distribution. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of MK value in the substantia nigra for PD. Results: MK value in the substantia nigra of PD group (1.29±0.05) was significant higher than that of the control group (1.26±0.06) (t=2.24, P=0.03). There was no significant difference in FA value between the two groups. Spearmen correlation analysis revealed that there was no significant association of two DKI parameters in substantia nigra of PD patients with the disease duration and clinical scales. Conclusion: MR DKI of deep brain nucleuses can be useful for the diagnosis of PD, but it is not suitable to evaluate the degree of PD clinical symptoms.