Abstract
Classical motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) such as tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia, and axial symptoms are graded in the Movement Disorders Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) III. It is yet to be ascertained whether parkinsonian motor symptoms are associated with different anatomical patterns of neurodegeneration as reflected by brain grey matter (GM) alteration. This study aimed to investigate associations between motor subscores and brain GM at voxel level. High resolution structural MRI T1 scans from the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) repository were employed to estimate brain GM intensity of PD subjects. Correlations between GM intensity and total MDS-UPDRS III and its four subscores were computed. The total MDS-UPDRS III score was significantly negatively correlated bilaterally with putamen and caudate GM density. Lower anterior striatal GM intensity was significantly associated with higher rigidity subscores, whereas left-sided anterior striatal and precentral cortical GM reduction were correlated with severity of axial symptoms. No significant morphometric associations were demonstrated for tremor subscores. In conclusion, we provide evidence for neuroanatomical patterns underpinning motor symptoms in early PD.
Highlights
Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder characterized by rigidity, tremor, bradykinesia and loss of postural stability (Gibb, 1988)
The strongest interrelation was seen for bradykinesia, which was strongly correlated with rigidity, and moderately with axial symptoms
It should be noted that bradykinesia displayed a very strong correlation with the total MDS-UPDRS III score, highlighting its Bradykinesia Rigidity Tremor Average UPDRS III
Summary
Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder characterized by rigidity, tremor, bradykinesia and loss of postural stability (Gibb, 1988). Relatively little attention has been paid to study the relation between MRI GM intensity changes and clinical motor measures as assessed with the Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDSUPDRS) III (Goetz et al, 2007). This is important because analysis of morphometric association of GM with clinical (sub)domain scores is a logical and powerful method to identify functionally meaningful brain structural patterns that may inform on PD biotypes
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