Neuroimaging characteristics of transcranial sonography in Parkinson's disease patients with depression / 中华神经科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To discuss the neuroimaging characteristics of transcranial ultrasound in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with or without depression.Methods Transcranial sonography (TCS) was performed in PD patients with depression (PDD +,n =50),PD patients without depression (PDD-,n =50),depression patients (D,n =50) and healthy controls (n =50),who were enrolled in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University from September 2010 to July 2016.The differences of the neuroimaging characteristics of TCS in brainstem raphe (BR) and substantia nigra (SN) in four groups were analyzed.According to the degree of depression,PDD + and D groups were divided into three subgroups:mild,moderate and severe depression,and the differences of echo characteristics in BR were analyzed among the subgroups.Results The rate of abnormal BR echogenicity was significantly higher in PDD + (78.0％,39/50) and D (82.0％,41/50) groups than that in PDD-(18.0％,9/50) and healthy control (10.0％,5/50) groups (x2 =87.80,P ＜0.01),and there was no statistically significant difference among the subgroups (PDD + group,P =0.98;D group,P =0.57).The rate of SN hyperechogenicity was significantly higher in PDD + (80.0％,40/50) and PDD-(86.0％,43/50) groups than that in D (8.0％,4/50) and healthy control (10.0％,5/50) groups (x2 =110.07,P＜ 0.01).Conclusion The echogenicity changes of BR and SN on TCS could provide some useful neuroimaging information for the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of PDD-from PDD +.