ABSTRACT
Objective:To explore the value of magnetic resonance diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) in the early diagnosis of Parkinson′s disease (PD).Methods:Thirty patients with early PD who were admitted to the Fujian Medical University Union Hospital From December 2016 to September 2017 were selected as case group, and 20 healthy persons in the same period were selected as healthy control group. 3.0 T GE magnetic resonance DKI was used to analyze olfactory related brain regions of the case group and the control group, the statistical differences were compared between the two groups in fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusion (MD), mean kurtosis (MK) values of olfactory cortex, and the correlation between MK values of olfactory cortex of the case group and age, disease course, Hoehn-Yahr (H-Y) stage, olfactory test, cognitive function evaluation was analyzed. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the best diagnostic cutoff value of olfactory cortical MK in PD.Results:The left amygdala MK between the PD group (0.595±0.037) and the control group (0.647±0.091) showed statistically significant difference ( t=-2.183, P=0.037). ROC curve was drawn according to the MK value of the left amygdala of the PD group: the best diagnostic cutoff value was 0.597, the sensitivity was 65.0%, and the specificity was 52.2%. There was a statistically significant difference between the PD group and the control group in Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA; 21.03±3.71 vs 24.25±1.65, t=-3.636, P=0.001) and Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) scores (13.93±1.36 vs 15.00±1.25, t=-2.086, P=0.042), and there was negative correlation between MoCA, FAB scores and H-Y stage ( r=-0.548, P=0.007; r=-0.465, P=0.025). There was a positive correlation between MK value of the right direct gyrus of the PD group and MoCA evaluation results ( r=0.447, P=0.032). Conclusions:The left amygdala DKI can be used as a biomarker of PD in the early stage, which is helpful for the early diagnosis of PD. MoCA and FAB scales can be used as tools to monitor the progress of PD cognitive impairment. PD cognitive dysfunction may be related to impairment of frontal lobe function.