Increased iron-deposition in lateral-ventral substantia nigra pars compacta: A promising neuroimaging marker for Parkinson's disease

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Naying He, Shanghai Jiao Tong University; Jason Langley, University of California Riverside; Daniel Huddleston, Emory University; Shengdi Chen, Shanghai Jiao Tong University; Pei Huang, Shanghai Jiao Tong University; Huawei Ling, Shanghai Jiao Tong University; Fuhua Yan, Shanghai Jiao Tong University; Xiaoping Hu, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2020-01-01
• Publisher: Elsevier Science Ltd.
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2020 Published by Elsevier Inc.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102391
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: NeuroImage: Clinical
• Volume: 28
• Start Page: 102391
• End Page: 102391
• Grant/Funding Information: Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (17411952700);; Innovative Research Team of High-level Local Universities in Shanghai; the Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJF 10854);; The Lewy Body Dementia Association Emory Research Center of Excellence;; NIH grant funding (NIH-NINDS 1K23NS105944-03; NIH-NIA 1R34AG056639-02).; The American Parkinson’s Disease Association Emory Center for Advanced Research;; National Natural Science Fund (81801652, 81971576);; This work was supported by the Shanghai Sailing Program (18YF1414700)
• Keywords: Parkinson's disease; Brain iron; Overlap percentage; Locus coeruleus; Neuroimaging; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Diagnostic biomarker; Science & Technology; T1; Basal ganglia; Neurosciences & Neurology; MRI; Substantia nigra pars compacta; R-2*
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Radiology; Engineering, Biomedical; Biology, Neuroscience

Abstract

Background To date there are no validated MRI biomarkers to assist diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Our aim was to investigate PD related iron changes in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) as defined by neuromelanin-sensitive MR contrast. Methods Thirty-nine PD participants and 33 healthy controls were scanned at 3.0-T using a 16-echo gradient echo sequence to create R2* maps for the evaluation of iron content to find the overlap with a neuromelanin based SNpc mask. The SNpc overlap percentage with the R2* map, and the R2* values in both the whole SNpc and the overlap volume were compared between PD and control groups, and correlated with clinical features for PD participants. Finally, the diagnostic performance of the SNpc overlap percentage was evaluated using ROC analysis. Results PD related iron changes mostly occur in the lateral-ventral part of the neuromelanin SNpc. The R2* values in the whole SNpc and the SNpc overlap volume, and the SNpc overlap percentage were larger in PD participants than in controls. Furthermore, the SNpc overlap percentage was positively correlated with the disease duration in PD. The SNpc overlap percentage provided excellent diagnostic accuracy for discriminating PD participants from controls (AUC = 0.93), while the R2* values in the whole SNpc or the overlap volume were less effective. Conclusion The overlap between the iron content as determined by R2* mapping and neuromelanin in the substantia nigra pars compacta has the potential to be a neuroimaging biomarker for diagnosing Parkinson’s disease.