Dopamine Transporter Imaging has no Impact on Functional Outcomes in de Novo Probable Parkinson's Disease

Diagnostic value of striatal 18F-FP-DTBZ PET in Parkinson’s disease

Background

18F-FP-DTBZ has been proven as a biomarker for quantifying the concentration of presynaptic vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2). However, its clinical application is still limited.

Objectives

To evaluate the difference in dopaminergic integrity between patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and healthy controls (HC) using 18F-FP-DTBZ PET in vivo and to determine the diagnostic value of standardized uptake value ratios (SUVRs) using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve.

Methods

A total of 34 PD and 31 HC participants were enrolled in the PET/MR derivation cohort, while 89 PD and 18 HC participants were recruited in the PET/CT validation cohort. The Hoehn–Yahr Scale and the third part of the MDS-Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDSUPDRS-III) were used to evaluate the disease staging and severity. All assessments and PET scanning were performed in drug-off states. The striatum was segmented into five subregions as follows: caudate, anterior dorsal putamen (ADP), anterior ventral putamen (AVP), posterior dorsal putamen (PDP), and posterior ventral putamen (PVP) using automatic pipeline built with the PMOD software (version 4.105). The SUVRs of the targeted subregions were calculated using the bilateral occipital cortex as the reference region.

Results

Regarding the diagnostic value, ROC curve and blind validation showed that the contralateral PDP (SUVR = 3.43) had the best diagnostic accuracy (AUC = 0.973; P < 0.05), with a sensitivity of 97.1% (95% CI: 82.9–99.8%), specificity of 100% (95% CI: 86.3–100%), positive predictive value (PPV) of 100% (95% CI: 87.0–100%), negative predictive value (NPV) of 96.9% (95% CI: 82.0–99.8%), and an accuracy of 98.5% for the diagnosis of PD in the derivation cohort. Blind validation of 18F-FP-DTBZ PET imaging diagnosis was done using the PET/CT cohort, where participants with a SUVR of the PDP <3.43 were defined as PD. Kappa test showed a consistency of 0.933 (P < 0.05) between clinical diagnosis and imaging diagnosis, with a sensitivity of 98.9% (95% CI: 93.0–99.9%), specificity of 94.4% (95% CI: 70.6–99.7%), PPV of 98.9% (95% CI: 93.0–99.9%), NPV of 94.4% (95% CI: 70.6–99.7%), and a diagnostic accuracy of 98.1%.

Conclusions

Our results showed that an SUVR threshold of 3.43 in the PDP could effectively distinguish patients with PD from HC.

Brain FDG PET for the Etiological Diagnosis of Clinically Uncertain Cognitive Impairment During Delirium in Remission

BACKGROUND

Positron emission tomography (PET) of the brain with 2-[F-18]-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) is widely used for the etiological diagnosis of clinically uncertain cognitive impairment (CUCI). Acute full-blown delirium can cause reversible alterations of FDG uptake that mimic neurodegenerative disease.

OBJECTIVE

This study tested whether delirium in remission affects the performance of FDG PET for differentiation between neurodegenerative and non-neurodegenerative etiology of CUCI.

METHODS

The study included 88 patients (82.0±5.7 y) with newly detected CUCI during hospitalization in a geriatric unit. Twenty-seven (31%) of the patients were diagnosed with delirium during their current hospital stay, which, however, at time of enrollment was in remission so that delirium was not considered the primary cause of the CUCI. Cases were categorized as neurodegenerative or non-neurodegenerative etiology based on visual inspection of FDG PET. The diagnosis at clinical follow-up after ≥12 months served as ground truth to evaluate the diagnostic performance of FDG PET.

RESULTS

FDG PET was categorized as neurodegenerative in 51 (58%) of the patients. Follow-up after 16±3 months was obtained in 68 (77%) of the patients. The clinical follow-up diagnosis confirmed the FDG PET-based categorization in 60 patients (88%, 4 false negative and 4 false positive cases with respect to detection of neurodegeneration). The fraction of correct PET-based categorization did not differ between patients with delirium in remission and patients without delirium (86% versus 89%, p = 0.666).

CONCLUSION

Brain FDG PET is useful for the etiological diagnosis of CUCI in hospitalized geriatric patients, as well as in patients with delirium in remission.

Nuclear Imaging in the Diagnosis of Clinically Uncertain Parkinsonian Syndromes

BACKGROUND

Parkinsonian syndromes are classified by etiology mainly on clinical grounds, that is, on the basis of the clinical manifestations and with the aid of conventional ancillary studies. In most cases, the clinical diagnosis is clear. In up to 30% of cases, however, the etiological classification remains uncertain after completion of the basic clinical diagnostic evaluation, and additional investigation with nuclear imaging may be indicated. In particular, cerebral single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) with dopamine transporter (DAT) ligands may be helpful. DAT-SPECT can be used to demonstrate or rule out nigrostriatal degeneration and thereby differentiate neurodegenerative parkinsonian syndromes from symptomatic parkinsonian syndromes and other differential diagnoses. Positron emission tomography (PET) with the glucose analogue [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) can be used to identify disease-specific patterns of neuronal dysfunction/degeneration in order to differentiate the various neurodegenerative parkinsonian syndromes from one another.

METHODS

In this review, we summarize the current state of the evidence on DAT-SPECT and FDG-PET for the indications mentioned above on the basis of a selective review of the literature.

RESULTS

DAT-SPECT has been adequately validated as an in vivo marker for nigrostriatal degeneration. Studies using the clinical diagnosis of a movement disorders specialist over the course of the disease as a reference have shown that DAT- SPECT is 78-100% sensitive (median, 93%) and 70-100% specific (median, 89%) for the differentiation of neurodegenerative parkinsonian syndromes from symptomatic parkinsonism and other differential diagnoses in clinically unclear cases. DAT- SPECT scanning led to a change of diagnosis in 27-56% of patients (median, 43%) and to a change of treatment in 33-72% (median, 43%). FDG-PET enables the differentiation of atypical neurodegenerative parkinsonian syndromes from the idiopathic parkinsonian syndrome (i.e., Parkinson's disease proper) with high sensitivity and specificity (both approximately 90%), when the clinical diagnosis by a movement disorders specialist over the course of the disease is used as a reference.

CONCLUSION

DAT-SPECT has been well documented to be highly diagnostically accurate and to have a relevant influence on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with clinically uncertain parkinsonian or tremor syndrome. It has not yet been shown to improve patient-relevant endpoints such as mortality, morbidity, and health-related quality of life; proof of this will probably have to await the introduction of neuroprotective treatments. The current evidence for the high differential diagnostic accuracy of FDG-PET in neurodegenerative parkinsonian syndromes needs to be reinforced by prospective studies with neuropathological verification of the diagnosis.