April 21, 2008 -- There may be a new way to find signs of Parkinson's disease in its early stages.
Two studies from the University at Buffalo and universities in Norway find advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may help detect the disease early.
The symptoms of Parkinson's disease develop when there's disintegration in the brain's white matter -- the network of nerves that transport messages to the various regions in the brain -- and grey matter which receives, interprets, and acts upon those messages.
Researchers were able to see regions in the brain linked to Parkinson's by looking at advanced MRI images, which showed both white and grey matter.
One study compared brain MRI scans and scores on a standard mental screening test of 155 patients diagnosed with early Parkinson's disease with 101 participants who didn't have Parkinson's.
Results show in Parkinson's patients, white matter hyperintensities (WMH) were significantly associated with lower scores on the mental test -- the more areas of hyperintensity, the lower the score. WMH are diseased areas of the white matter commonly seen in brain MRI scans in the elderly.
The second study looked at whether mild cognitive impairment in early Parkinson's is associated with atrophy of a specific region of the brain.
Researchers analyzed high-resolution MRI scans of 43 newly diagnosed Parkinson's patients and those of 31 participants without Parkinson's. They found the patients with mild cognitive impairment showed a trend toward reduced grey matter in the cingulate area -- a brain region associated with cognitive performance.
"This study shows that cingulate atrophy is associated with early cognitive deficit in Parkinson's disease," lead author Turi O. Dalaker, M.D., from Stavanger University Hospital in Norway, was quoted as saying. "And [it] might serve as a possible biomarker for increased risk of developing dementia in Parkinson's."
Researchers plan to follow participants of both studies for 10 years.