Reduction of white matter integrity correlates with apathy in Parkinson's disease

ABSTRACT

Background: Apathy is a common non-motor symptom in Parkinson's disease (PD), but little is known about apathy and white matter (WM) change. In this study, we investigated whether fractional anisotropy (FA) of the WM can distinguish apathetic patients from non-apathetic PD patients, and whether the FA value correlates with the severity of apathy in PD.

Methods: Thirty-nine PD patients participated in our study, of which 18 participants were with apathy symptom, and 21 without apathy symptom. Diffusion tensor imaging was performed on all the subjects.

Results: Compared to non-apathetic PD patients, the apathetic group had reduced FA values in the genu and body of corpus callosum, bilateral anterior corona radiata, left superior corona radiata and left cingulum. Furthermore, in these WM regions, the FA values were negatively correlated with the Lille Apathy Rating Scale scores in apathetic subjects.

Conclusion: The WM change is associated with apathy in PD patients. In addition, the FA values of specific regions of WM could be a promising marker to predict the severity of apathy.

KEYWORDS:

• Apathy
• Parkinson's disease
• white matter integrity
• fractional anisotropy
• DTI

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declare no potential conflict of interests with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 81301074], [grant number 81230026], [grant number 81630028]; the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China [grant number BE2016610]; the National Key Research and Development Program of China [grant number 2016YFC1300500].

Notes on contributors

Yang Zhang

Yang Zhang is an attending doctor in Department of Neurology, Drum Tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing, PR China. His research interest lies in the clinical and basic studies of Stroke and Parkinson's disease. He has published journal articles on Stroke and Parkinson's disease. He recently published the article entitled with “Valproic acid protects against MPP+-mediated neurotoxicity in SH-SY5Y Cells through autophagy” in Neuroscience letters, 2017.

Jiayong Wu

Jiayong Wu is an attending doctor in Department of Neurology, Drum Tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing, PR China. His research interest lies in the inflammatory neurological disease and Parkinson's disease.

Wenbo Wu

Wenbo Wu is a resident doctor in Department of Medical Imaging,Drum Tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing, PR China. His research interest lies in the functional MRI of Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

Renyuan Liu

Renyuan Liu is a PhD candidate in Department of Medical Imaging,Drum Tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing, PR China. His research interest lies in the functional MRI of Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

Lingen Pang

Lingen Pang is a resident doctor in Department of Neurology, Drum Tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing, PR China. Her research interest lies in Parkinson's disease.

Dening Guan

Dening Guan is an associate professor of Neurology at Drum tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University. His research interests lies in Stroke and Parkinson's disease.

Yun Xu

Yun Xu is a professor of Neurology at Drum tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University. She received her doctorate in Neurology from Nanjing University. Her current research interests lies in Stroke, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.