Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate a relationship between cognitive dysfunction and striatal uptake of 123I-FP-CIT SPECT (dopamine transporter (DAT) SPECT) in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Background: DAT SPECT is a radionuclide scanning that detects the availability of DAT in the corpus striatum, and thus the functionality of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons. The striatum clinically coordinates motor planning, decision-making, and reward perception together with procedural memory. On the other hand, cognitive dysfunction frequently occurs in PD, and it contributes to disability, caregiver strain, and diminished quality of life. However, a relationship between cognitive dysfunction and DAT SPECT in PD remain to be clarified.

Methods: We enrolled 49 patients with PD (20 men and 29 women, average age: 71.5±9.0 years, Hoehn-Yahr (H-Y) stage: 2.3±8.4, disease duration: 3.4±2.7 years). All patients underwent neuropsychological tests and DAT SPECT. Cognitive domains were assessed using by Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (RBMT), Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB), Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination Final Reviced Version A (ACE-R), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and Trail Making Test (TMT). Striatal uptake of DAT SPECT was assessed by Specific Binding Ratio (SBR). Clinical information, neuropsychological tests, and the SBR were compared each other.

Results: The SBR were negatively correlated with the age (r=-0.386, p<0.05), H-Y stage (r=-0.664, p<0.001), the disease duration (r=-0.459, p<0.05), TMT B (r=-0.398, p<0.05), and TMT B-A (r=-0.404, p<0.05), and were positively correlated with FAB (r=0.392, p<0.05), ACE-R (r=0.442, p<0.05) and MoCA (r=0.459, p<0.05). But there were no significant correlation between SBR and MMSE, TMT A, and RBMT.

Conclusions: The results of the present study suggest that the SBR are associated with executive function and set-shifting, but not everyday memory. It has been reported that memory disorder in PD is relatively associated with dysfunction of front-striatal circuit. But RBMT is affected by more extensive lesions including thalamus, caudate nucleus, hippocampus, and corpus callosum. Therefore, the SBR are not correlated with RBMT in this study.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/relationship-between-cognitive-dysfunction-and-striatal-uptake-of-123i-fp-cit-in-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/