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Correlating Parkinson’s disease motor symptoms with three-dimensional [18F]FP-CIT PET

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Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the correlation between the striatal three-dimensional location and the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) motor score in the context of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD) through radiolabeled N-(3-fluoropropyl)-2β-carboxymethoxy-3β-(4-iodophenyl) nortropane positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FP-CIT PET/CT).

Materials and methods

In this cross-sectional study, we assessed the UPDRS motor score and performed FP-CIT PET/CT in patients with PD. Thirty-eight patients with idiopathic PD [average 70 years of age (range 49–86); male:female ratio 12:26] were enrolled. The correlation between FP-CIT PET/CT and the UPDRS III scores was investigated after the transformation of PET images by an alternative method using MATLAB.

Results

Left caudate nucleus uptake negatively correlated with UPDRS items 18, 20 (face), 22 (right arm and leg), 23, 24 (right side), 26 (right side), 27, 30, and 31, while right caudate nucleus uptake positively correlated with items 18, 22 (left arm), 26, and 29. Putamen uptake correlated with items 22 and 25. Left caudate nucleus uptake positively correlated with axial and akinetic-rigidity symptoms.

Conclusions

FP-CIT uptake in specific basal ganglia structures strongly correlated with the UPDRS III motor score. Among these, the left caudate nucleus exhibited the strongest relationship with axial and akinetic-rigidity PD symptoms.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2012R1A1A1042282).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Correspondence to Young Seok Park.

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Chung, M., Park, Y.S., Kim, J.S. et al. Correlating Parkinson’s disease motor symptoms with three-dimensional [18F]FP-CIT PET. Jpn J Radiol 33, 609–618 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11604-015-0427-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11604-015-0427-0

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