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The diagnostic value of minor salivary gland biopsy in clinically diagnosed patients with Parkinson’s disease: comparison with DAT PET scans

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Abstract

To investigate the predictive value of minor salivary gland biopsy in clinically diagnosed early stage Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, and to provide more evidence of minor salivary gland biopsy as a pathological diagnostic biomarker of PD. Thirteen patients with early stage PD and 13 age-matched controls were recruited. Hoehn and Yahr stage and Unified Parkinson’s disease Rating Scale Part III were employed to evaluate their severity of the disease. All the subjects underwent minor salivary gland biopsy and 11C-methyl-N-2β-carbomethoxy-3β-(4-fluorophenyl) tropane (11C-CFT) DAT-PET scan. Immunohistochemical staining for Lewy-type alpha-synucleinopathy using antibody against alpha-synuclein (α-Syn) was performed in the tissues obtained from minor salivary gland. Abnormal accumulation of α-Syn was found around the gland cells in 9 of the 13 patients with PD, but in none of the control subjects. The α-Syn immunoreactive structures were located in the periacinar space. Twelve clinically diagnosed PD patients showed asymmetrical and relatively severe reduction of 11C-CFT uptake in the posterior putamen compared with the control. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of minor salivary gland biopsy were 75, 100, 100 and 25%, respectively, when compared with the DAT-PET imaging. Our results suggest that minor salivary gland biopsy does not hold high diagnostic accuracy as DAT-PET, but still has the potential to be a useful pathologic biomarker for PD, which is worth more investigations.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the patients who took part in the study. This study was sponsored by grants from the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, China (Grant No. Z111107058811012), the High Level Technical Personnel Training Project of Beijing Health System, China (Grant No. 2011-3-022), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation, Beijing Municipal Commission of Education, China (Grant No. kz20120025028), and the National Key Technology Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant No. 2013BAI09B03).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, 6 Tiantan Xili, Dongcheng District, Beijing, 100050, China

    Liyan Gao, Huimin Chen, Xin Li, Fangfei Li & Tao Feng

  2. China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing, China

    Liyan Gao, Huimin Chen, Xin Li, Fangfei Li & Tao Feng

  3. Parkinson’s Disease Center, Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

    Liyan Gao, Huimin Chen, Xin Li, Fangfei Li & Tao Feng

  4. Department of Nuclear Medicine, No. 1 Hospital, Affiliated to General Hospital of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Beijing, China

    Qiaohong Ou-Yang

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  1. Liyan Gao
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  2. Huimin Chen
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  3. Xin Li
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  4. Fangfei Li
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  5. Qiaohong Ou-Yang
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  6. Tao Feng
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Correspondence to Tao Feng.

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Gao, L., Chen, H., Li, X. et al. The diagnostic value of minor salivary gland biopsy in clinically diagnosed patients with Parkinson’s disease: comparison with DAT PET scans. Neurol Sci 36, 1575–1580 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-015-2190-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-015-2190-5

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