Characteristics of cerebral glucose metabolism on 18F-FDG PET imaging in patients with Parkinson′s disease

Objective To validate the reproducibility of abnormal cerebral metabolic characteristics in PD patients from different medical centers using 18F-FDG PET imaging. Methods A total of 108 subjects who were referred for resting-state brain 18F-FDG PET imaging were retrospectively reviewed. Thirty-three PD patients (15 males, 18 females, age: 38-79 years) and 33 age-matched healthy controls (15 males, 18 females, age: 40-77 years) underwent evaluation at Shanghai Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University. Seventeen PD patients (10 males, 7 females, age: 44-74 years) and 17 age-matched healthy controls (6 males, 11 females, age: 42-67 years) underwent evaluation at the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. SPM was used to investigate the cerebral metabolic characteristics of the patients with two-sample t test. Statistically significant voxels were obtained by using familywise error rate (FWE; P<0.05). Two sets of PD patients with abnormal glucose metabolism of brain regions were obtained and the cerebral metabolic characteristics were compared. Results Regarding the PD patients from Shanghai Huashan Hospital, the features of cerebral glucose metabolism by SPM analysis were demonstrated as follows: increased metabolism was found in the region of pons, cerebellum, thalamus, putamen and pallidum, while decreased metabolism was displayed in the region of parietal lobe and occipital lobe. The increased regions referred to 8 110 voxels and decreased regions referred to 2 810 voxels (P<0.05). The similar metabolic pattern was found in PD patients from the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. The increased metabolism was shown in the regions of pons, cerebellum, thalamus, putamen and pallidum, and referred to 15 573 voxels. The metabolism-decreased regions included parietal lobe, occipital lobe and frontal lobe, and referred to 3 945 voxels (P<0.05). Conclusions 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging results demonstrate similar metabolic pattern in PD patients from different medical centers, in whom the metabolism-increased regions are found in the pons, cerebellum, thalamus and pallidum and decreased regions were demonstrated in the parietal lobe and occipital lobe. The reproducibility from 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging provides reliable evidence for the multi-center study in the differential diagnosis of PD. Key words: Parkinson disease; Brain; Metabolism; Positron-emission tomography; Deoxyglucose