title: Cerebellar dentate nucleus in progressive supranuclear palsy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Some patients with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) present with cerebellar dysfunction. Severe degeneration of the cerebellar dentate nucleus (CDN) was evident in these patients. We evaluated signal intensity on MRI in the CDN of PSP patients with or without cerebellar ataxia.
  
  
  METHODS
  We reviewed the clinical histories and brain MRI studies of 28 patients with clinically probable PSP. Three disease control groups were studied: a group of 28 sex- and age-matched patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), a group of 15 patients with multiple system atrophy with predominant parkinsonian features (MSA-P), and 15 control subjects. Turbo spin-echo sequences for T2-weighted images were used using a 1.5T magnetic resonance imager.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eight patients with PSP (28%) and one patient with MSA-P (6%) had heterogeneous regions in the CDN. This finding was not evident in the patients with PD or controls. Three out of four PSP patients with cerebellar ataxia had heterogeneous regions in the CDN and other one patient with cerebellar ataxia as the initial and principal symptoms had no heterogeneous regions in the CDN.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Heterogeneous regions in the CDN on MRI do not always reflect cerebellar ataxia in PSP patients, and this finding might be an additional marker to support a probable diagnosis of PSP.
authors: Department of Neurology, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Nara, Japan.
authors: Nobuhiro
authors: N
authors: Sawa
authors: Department of Neurology, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Nara, Japan. Electronic address: hk55@naramed-u.ac.jp.
authors: Hiroshi
authors: H
authors: Kataoka
authors: Department of Neurology, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Nara, Japan.
authors: Takao
authors: T
authors: Kiriyama
authors: Department of Neurology, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Nara, Japan.
authors: Tesseki
authors: T
authors: Izumi
authors: Department of Radiology, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Nara, Japan.
authors: Toshiaki
authors: T
authors: Taoka
authors: Department of Radiology, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Nara, Japan.
authors: Kimihiko
authors: K
authors: Kichikawa
authors: Department of Neurology, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Nara, Japan.
authors: Satoshi
authors: S
authors: Ueno
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002524:Cerebellar Ataxia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D002529:Cerebellar Nuclei / Q000473:pathology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009410:Nerve Degeneration / Q000473:pathology; D009460:Neurologic Examination; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications; D013494:Supranuclear Palsy, Progressive / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*
keywords: Ataxia; Cerebellar dentate nucleus; MRI; Parkinsonism; Progressive supranuclear palsy