title: Cortical metabolic and nigrostriatal abnormalities associated with clinical stage-specific dementia with Lewy bodies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aims of this study were to investigate the hypometabolic regions of FDG PET compared with the nigrostriatal dopamine pathway abnormalities in TRODAT-1 scan in patients with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLBs) at mild and dementia stages as well as to validate the correlation among networks being constructed with clinical data.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 25 DLB patients were classified into 2 functional groups stratified by the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) Scale (CDR 0.5: n = 14, mild stage; CDR 1 or 2: n = 11, dementia stage) compared with 9 age-matched controls. Neuroimaging survey was applied using information derived from FDG PET by performing voxel-based analysis and a semiquantitative Tc-TRODAT-1 scan to correlate these results with the cognitive and Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with normal database, the patients with mild stage showed hypometabolism in the temporal regions, anterior cingulate cortex, inferior orbital region, thalamus, and caudate nucleus. Although at the dementia stage, more extensive cortical hypometabolism involving occipital region were found. The dopamine transporter levels derived from TRODAT-1 scan had excellent discrimination in diagnosing DLB compared with age-matched normal controls (1.58 [0.2] and 1.84 [0.1], P < 0.01) but without significant differences between mild and dementia stages. The sophisticated cortical-brainstem networks by FDG PET and TRODAT-1 yielded good clinical correlation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The networks yielded from FDG PET and TRODAT-1 revealed good correlation with clinical data and that nigrostriatal pathway abnormalities are preceded by typical occipital hypometabolism in mild stage of DLB. Dopamine transporter levels may serve as early diagnostic tool and FDG PET as staging indicator for DLB pathology.
authors.affiliation: From the Departments of *Nuclear Medicine, †Neurology, and ‡Radiology, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, and §Department of Biomedical Engineering, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Shu-Hua
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Chiung-Chih
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Chun-Chung
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Lui
authors.forename: Nai-Ching
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Chen-Chang
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Pei-Wen
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ching-Fen
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D020961:Lewy Body Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D013378:Substantia Nigra / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D014326:Tropanes
chemical_list: D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D014326:Tropanes; C104196:technetium Tc 99m TRODAT-1; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18