Objective: To identify dopamine transporter status of corpus striatum and thalamus using magnetic resonance imaging-guided spatial normalization method in patients with PD according to olfactory function.

Background: Olfactory dysfunction is a sensitive biomarker of neurodegeneration and a cardinal premotor symptom of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Several non-motor symptoms have been correlated with decreased dopamine transporter uptake. Olfactory dysfunction and reduced dopamine transporter uptake were not widely investigated in PD.

Methods: Among the 126 PD patients, 79 were hyposmia and 47 were normosmia. All were underwent positron emission tomography using 18F-N-(3-fluoropropyl)-2beta-carbon ethoxy-3beta-(4-iodophenyl) nortropane (18F -FP-CIT PET) and T1-weighted magnetic resonance image (MRI). PET images were normalized with simultaneously performed spatial normalized MR images and the regional standardized uptake value ratio with a volume of interest template were compared according to olfactory function.

Results: The left anterior caudate of the hyposmic group showed a significant reduced dopamine transporter uptake than that of the normosmic group. Other sites, including posterior caudate nucleus, putamen, globus pallidus, ventral striatum, and thalamus, did not show any differences of dopamine transporter uptake between hyposmic and normosmic groups.

Conclusions: More dopaminergic impairment of the left anterior caudate nucleus was found in relation with olfactory dysfunction in PD. This finding suggests that decreased dopamine uptake in the left anterior caudate nucleus may be an imaging trace of olfactory dysfunction in patients with PD.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/striatal-dopamine-uptake-and-olfactory-dysfunction-in-patients-with-early-parkinsons-disease/