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Abstract #1530

Prospective Longitudinal Diffusion Tensor Tractography Evidence of Nigrostriatal Degeneration in Early Parkinson’s Disease

Arthur Yong1, Amanda Lee2, Septian Hartono2,3, Isabel Chew2, Samuel Ng3, Xinyi Choi3, Wilson Jia Wei Wong2, Linda Soo Lee Lim4, Eng King Tan1,3, Louis Tan1,3, and Ling Ling Chan1,2
1Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore, Singapore, 2Singapore General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore, 3National Neuroscience Institute, Singapore, Singapore, 4National Heart Centre Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by progressive dopaminergic neuronal loss in the substantia nigra (SN) and dopaminergic deafferentation in the striatal nuclei. Diffusion tensor tractography (DTT) has been used to document cross-sectional changes in the nigrostriatal pathway (NSP) in PD. Our prospective longitudinal study using DTT revealed significant interval NSP degeneration over a two-year period compared to controls, besides cross-sectional changes in the NSP congruent with current literature. Our results suggested that demyelination may be the dominant factor in NSP degeneration in PD. DTT may be a useful objective biomarker of disease progression in the early stages of PD.

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