Objective: We aimed to investigate and compare of body weight between normal and abnormal BR echogenicity in patients with PD.

Background: Weight loss is frequent and related with quality of life in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Although there are many factors involving in weight loss of PD patients, non-motor symptoms, such as cognitive decline or depression also are associated with weight loss in PD patients. Recently, several studies using transcranial sonography (TCS) have a result of alteration of the echogenicity in the brainstem raphe (BR) in patients with depression.

Method: Patients were eligible for the study if they had de novo PD and were 40 years of age or older. High-resolution B-mode ultrasound measurements of the BR were performed using a Siemens Acuson S1000 scanner (Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Erlangen, Germany) with a 2.0–3.5 MHz transducer.

Results:
A total of 165 patients were recruited for this study. The mean age was 68 years, and 61% were women. The mean duration of disease at recruitment was 1.4 years. Them mean HY stage was 1.7, and the mean total UPDRS (I-III) score was 31. Patients with abnormal BR echogenicity showed significantly higher HAM score and lower PDSS and BMI than patients with normal BR echogenicity, suggesting that abnormal BR echogenicity were associated with depression and low body weight. Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that UPDRS I-III (β = 0.489, P=0.002) and abnormal BR echogenicity (β = 0.19, P=0.031) were significantly associated with HAM score.

Conclusion:
This study showed that low body weight may be associated with depression in patients with PD and we also found that TCS for BR echogenicity might be a useful to predict weight loss which is a risk of quality of life in patients with PD, as well as depression which is a risk for developing PD.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/body-weight-and-brainstem-raphe-echogenicity-in-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/