MRS study on lentiform nucleus in idiopathic Parkinson's disease with unilateral symptoms.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate changes in magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) of lentiform nucleus during the early stage of Parkinson's disease.


METHODS
Twenty-five patients with idiopathic Parkinson disease with unilateral symptoms (IPDUS) and 25 healthy volunteers were enrolled in this study. MRS of the lentiform nucleus in each patient was taken and then concentrations of N-acetylaspartate (NAA), Creatine (Cr) and Choline (Cho) were calculated.


RESULTS
Compared to that in the control, NAA/ (Cho+Cr) was significantly lower in the lentiform nucleus contralateral to symptoms and even that in the ipsilateral side in IPDUS patients (all P<0.05); while there was no difference between the two sides in the healthy volunteer (P>0.05). The ratio of NAA/(Cho+Cr) ipsilateral to the sympatomatic side of the patient was also lower than that of the control (P<0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
There might be some changes with MRS on the lentiform nucleus during the early stage of idiopathic Parkinson's disease with unilateral symptom. MRS may be one of the reliable methods for early or even sub-clinical diagnosis.
Zheng
Xu-ning
XN
The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310003, China. zhengxn1@mail.hz.zj.cn
Zhu
Xiong-chao
XC
Ruan
Ling-xiang
LX
Zhang
Ling-ju
LJ
Yuan
Min
M
Shang
De-sheng
DS
Liu
Yang
Y
D000368:Aged; D001224:Aspartic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis; D002794:Choline / Q000378:metabolism*; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000378:metabolism*; D003401:Creatine / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D015415:Biomarkers; D001224:Aspartic Acid; C000179:N-acetylaspartate; D003401:Creatine; D002794:Choline