Application of 18 F-DOPA PET imaging in the diagnosis and assessment of early-stage Parkinson's disease / 中华核医学与分子影像杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the clinical values of L-6-18 F-fluoro-3,4-dihydroxyphenylala-nine ( 18 F-DOPA) PET in the diagnosis and severity assessment of early-stage Parkinson's disease ( PD) . Methods Thirty-eight patients (24 males, 14 females; age34-74 years) with early-stage PD (Hoehn-Yahr ( H-Y) staging1-2) and 5 age-matched healthy volunteers ( all males;age45-65 years) from July 2016 to March 2017 were included and underwent 18 F-DOPA PET scan in this retrospective study. The stria-tal-to-occipital ratio ( SOR) was calculated and compared between PD patients and healthy volunteers. The unified PD rating scale ( UPDRS) Ⅲ score and H-Y staging were used to evaluate the clinical symptoms. Two-sample t test and Pearson correlation analysis were used. Results In the control group, 18 F-DOPA SORs in bilateral putamen and caudate nucleus were 2.50±0.24 and 2.61±0.23, respectively. In PD group, the SORs of ipsilateral and contralateral putamen nucleus were 2.02±0.27 and 1.80±0.26 respectively, lower than those in the control group ( t values-4.006,-5.440, both P<0.01) . The SORs of ipsilateral and contralater-al caudate nucleus were 2.16±0.32 and 2.08±0.28 respectively, lower than those in the control group ( t val-ues-2.990,-4.047, both P<0.01). The SORs of contralateral putamen and caudate nucleus were signifi-cantly lower than those of the ipsilateral striatum respectively (t values-6.431,-3.837, both P<0.01). Fur-thermore, the SORs in the striatum (putamen and caudate nucleus) were negatively correlated with UPDRSⅢscore, H-Y staging, and duration of disease (r valuesfrom-0.526 to-0.369, all P<0.05). Conclusions 18F-DOPA PET can reflect the changes in the striatum neurons, and it may be an important method in the diag-nosis and assessment of early-stage PD patients.