Susceptibility weighted imaging quantitative study of brain iron deposition in Parkinson′s disease

Objective:To investigate the relationship between PD pathogenesis or progress and brain iron deposition in comparision with the difference of T2* values and in quantitative analysis of the variations of brain iron in several cerebral regions between Parkinson disease(PD) patients and control subjects.Methods:Forty patients with PD and 40 healthy controls,ranging in same ages and gender,underwent routine sequences and SWI sequence on a 3T MR scanner.Twenty-four PD patients with unilateral symptoms and 16 PD patients with bi-lateral symptoms were enrolled in PD-1 group and PD-2 group,respectivelv.T2* value was measured in both sides of substantia nigra pars compacta(SNc),substantia nigra pars reticulata(SNr),red nucleus(RN),globus pallidus(GP),putamen(PUT),head of caudate nucleus(CN),thalamus(THA) and frontal white matter(FWM),and statistic analysis was performed.Results:①The T2* values were significantly reduced in SNc of homolateral side of symptoms with PD-1 compared with the contralateral side(P0.05).There was no differences in others regions(P0.05);②The T2* values were significantly reduced in contralateral side SNc and SNr of symptoms of subjects with PD-1 compared with the homolateral side(P0.05),and there was no significant difference in other regions(P0.05);③There was a significant reduction in the T2* values in contralateral side SNc and RN of symptoms of subjects with PD-1 compared with the contralateral side(P0.05).There were no differences in other regions(P0.05);④No significant difference was demonstrated in T2* values in all regions in homolateral side of symptoms of subjects with PD-1 compared with the contralateral side(P0.05);⑤There was no significant difference in the T2* values between the two sides in the PD-1 group(P0.05);⑥No significant difference was found in T2* values in all regions of interesting between PD-1 group and PD-2 group(P0.05).Conclusion:In the subclinical period of PD there was already iron abnormal sedimentation in patient′s brain.There is a relationship with the local iron content increase and unila-teral symptoms in the pathogenesis of PD,but there is no significant correlation with the severity of the illness.The parts of the iron abnormal deposition in PD includes compact part of substantia nigra,reticular part of substantia nigra,red nucleus.