[Regional cerebral blood flow changes in Parkinson's disease: correlation with disease duration].
BACKGROUND
Changes in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) have been reported in idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD). Nonetheless, their typical pattern still remains controversial regarding some features, such as basal ganglia involvement and the main cortical regions affected. Functional neuroimaging makes it possible to identify the brain dysfunctions of the neural circuits underlying the disease. Voxel-based analysis methods make it possible to increase the reliability of the results.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the rCBF changes in patients with PD and their relation with disease duration.


METHODS
Thirty PD adult patients without dementia underwent evaluation with (99m)Tc-ECD SPECT. SPM5 was used for statistical comparison with 25 normal controls of similar ages. The disease course duration in years was added as a covariate. Additionally, patients with a 6-year evolution or less and those with more than 6 years were compared separately with normal controls.


RESULTS
Significant hypoperfusion was detected in bilateral premotor and posterior parietal cortex and increase of perfusion was present in the cerebellum. These changes correlated with the years of evolution of the illness. Patients with longer evolution also presented thalamic, subthalamic and basal ganglia hypoperfusion.


CONCLUSIONS
We describe rCBF changes in PD in neural circuits related with control of movements. These changes are more manifest in patients with a longer duration of the disease.
Kapitán
M
M
Centro de Medicina Nuclear, Hospital de Clínicas, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay.
Ferrando
R
R
Diéguez
E
E
de Medina
O
O
Aljanati
R
R
Ventura
R
R
Amorin
I
I
Salinas
D
D
Langhain
M
M
Gioia
A
A
Cardoso
A
A
Lago
G
G
Buzó
R
R
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000098:blood supply / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000098:blood supply / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon