ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the imaging features of nigrosome-1 in Parkinson's disease (PD) with a 3 T scanner by susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI),and to explore its clinical relevance.Methods Thirty-two patients with primary PD diagnosed by neurologists were collected.Healthy controls matched to their age and gender were recruited during the same period (n=20).All subjects underwent routine brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and sensitive weighted imaging (SWI).The SWI images of the subjects were evaluated to evaluate nigrosome-1 by blinded investigators.Then,the correlation between imaging features and clinical data was analyzed.Results In the PD group,21 cases of bilateral "absent swallow-tail sign",five cases of bilateral "indecisive swallow-tail sign",five cases of "absent swallow-tail sign" on one side and "indecisive swallow-tail sign" on the other side,and one case of bilateral "clear swallow-tail sign" were found.The course of the "absent swallow-tail sign" group (56 (54) months) was significantly longer than the "non-absent swallow-tail sign" group (18 (18) months;U=-2.47,P=0.01).The Hoehn-Yahr stage was significantly higher in the "absent swallow-tail sign" group (2.0 (0.5)) than in the "non-absent swallow-tail sign" group (1.5 (0.5),U=-2.21,P=0.03).There was also a statistically significant difference in the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale score (24 (8),13 (14)) between the two groups (U=-2.91,P=0.01).However,there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in the Hamilton Depression Scale score (5 (2) vs 5 (7),U=-0.10,P=0.94) and the Hamilton Anxiety Scale score (3.0 (2.5) vs 3.0 (3.0),U=-0.02,P=1.00).Conclusion The images of nigrosome-1 by SWI are closely related to the severity of the condition and motor symptoms of patients with PD,which can reflect the severity of the disease.