title: Low Cerebral Glucose Metabolism: A Potential Predictor for the Severity of Vascular Parkinsonism and Parkinson's Disease.
abstract: This study explored the association between cerebral metabolic rates of glucose (CMRGlc) and the severity of Vascular Parkinsonism (VP) and Parkinson's disease (PD). A cross-sectional study was performed to compare CMRGlc in normal subjects vs. VP and PD patients. Twelve normal subjects, 22 VP, and 11 PD patients were evaluated with the H&Y and MMSE, and underwent 18F-FDG measurements. Pearson's correlations were used to identify potential associations between the severity of VP/PD and CMRGlc. A pronounced reduction of CMRGlc in the frontal lobe and caudate putamen was detected in patients with VP and PD when compared with normal subjects. The VP patients displayed a slight CMRGlc decrease in the caudate putamen and frontal lobe in comparison with PD patients. These decreases in CMRGlc in the frontal lobe and caudate putamen were significantly correlated with the VP patients' H&Y, UPDRS II, UPDRS III, MMSE, cardiovascular, and attention/memory scores. Similarly, significant correlations were observed in patients with PD. This is the first clinical study finding strong evidence for an association between low cerebral glucose metabolism and the severity of VP and PD. Our findings suggest that these changes in glucose metabolism in the frontal lobe and caudate putamen may underlie the pathophysiological mechanisms of VP and PD. As the scramble to find imaging biomarkers or predictors of the disease intensifies, a better understanding of the roles of cerebral glucose metabolism may give us insight into the pathogenesis of VP and PD.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neurology, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangdong 510630, China.
authors.forename: Yunqi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neurology, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangdong 510630, China.
authors.forename: Xiaobo
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neurology, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangdong 510630, China.
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neurology, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangdong 510630, China.
authors.forename: Jinchi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Neurosurgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangdong 510080, China.
authors.forename: Jiaping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neurology, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangdong 510630, China.
authors.forename: Cansheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: 4 Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510630, China.
authors.forename: Xiaochun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.affiliation: 4 Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510630, China.
authors.forename: Dongsi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: 3 Department of Neurosurgery, the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Dongman
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chao
authors.affiliation: 3 Department of Neurosurgery, the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Albert J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Fenoy
authors.affiliation: 4 Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510630, China.
authors.forename: Muhua
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: 5 The State Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410078, China.
authors.forename: Beisha
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: 5 The State Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410078, China.
authors.forename: Zhuohua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: 3 Department of Neurosurgery, the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neurology, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangdong 510630, China.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: Parkinson’s disease; Vascular Parkinsonism; caudate putamen; cerebral glucose metabolism; frontal lobe; non-motor symptoms