Objective: The purpose of our study was to assess the relationship of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics and motor outcomes, with a specific emphasis on postural instability, in a cohort of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients.

Background: The thalami have an important role in posture control; thalamic structural alterations have been described in the setting of PD. DTI is an MR based technique which allows interrogation of microstructural disruption which can be seen in early neurodegeneration.

Methods: 34 patients with PD (30 males, 4 femaies, mean age=68) were imaged on a 3 Tesla Ingenia MR Unit using high resolution T1 weighted brain MR imaging, 32 direction DTI and 11C-DTBZ brain PET imaging to quantify nigrostriatal dopaminergic denervation. The International Parkinson and Movement Disorders Society (MDS) rating scale was performed on all subjects. Scores for bradykinesia, tremor, rigidity and postural instability and gait difficulty (PIGD) were computed. MR images were post-processed to outline the thalami and mean fractional anisotropy (FA) values for the outlined thalami were computed. ANOVA, accounting for effects of age, gender, intracranial volume (ICV) and striatal DTBZ binding was used to test the relationship between thalamic FA values and motor scores.

Results: Thalamic FA values were significantly associated with PIGD scores (p=0.0001). No significant association was noted between thalamic FA values and bradykinesia, tremor or rigidity scores.

Conclusions: Thalamic FA values are significantly associated with postural instability scores with lower anisotropy values being seen in the setting of greater postural instability.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/diffusion-tensor-metrics-of-thalamic-degeneration-and-postural-instability-in-parkinsons-disease/