Comparison of cerebral perfusion between patients with tremor dominant Parkinson's disease and essential tremor

Abstract

Objective To investigate the cerebral perfusion difference between tremor dominant Parkinson's disease (PD) and essential tremor (ET). Methods Twenty⁃five patients with tremor dominant PD and 23 with ET admitted to Zhongshan Hospital Fudan University from October 2016 to December 2018 were included, and 39 normal controls matched by sex and age were recruited. Cerebral blood flow (CBF) was acquired through three dimensional pseudo ⁃ continuous arterial spin labeling (3D ⁃ pCASL). Results Significant differences of CBF were observed among 3 groups in bilateral middle frontal gyrus, caudate nucleus, posterior cerebellar lobes, left superior frontal gyrus, left parahippocampal gyrus, left inferior occipital gyrus, left lingual gyrus, left precuneus, right orbital middle frontal gyrus, right cuneus, right superior occipital gyrus, right middle occipital gyrus (P < 0.05, for all; AlphaSim correction). Compared with the control group, PD patients demonstrated decreased CBF in the left superior frontal gyrus (t = 4.891, P < 0.05), left middle frontal gyrus (t = 4.993, P < 0.05) and left inferior occipital gyrus (t = 4.403, P < 0.05), as well as increased CBF in the right orbital middle frontal gyrus (t = 4.162, P < 0.05). Compared with the ET group, PD patients demonstrated decreased CBF in the left middle frontal gyrus (t = 5.471, P < 0.05), right middle frontal gyrus (t = 4.798, P < 0.05), left lingual gyrus (t = 4.972, P < 0.05), left inferior parietal gyrus (t = 4.532, P < 0.05), left caudate nucleus (t = 5.001, P < 0.05) and right posterior cerebellar lobe (t = 3.852, P < 0.05). Conclusions There are distinctive cerebral perfusion patterns in PD and ET patients, which implies that these two conditions may be associated with distinct pathophysiological mechanisms.

DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1672⁃6731.2023.06.013