Little is known of the precise relationship between the expression of disease-related metabolic patterns and nigrostriatal dopaminergic dysfunction in parkinsonism. We studied 51 subjects with Parkinson's disease (PD) (18 non-demented, 24 demented, and 9 dementia with Lewy bodies) and 127 with atypical parkinsonian syndromes (47 multiple system atrophy (MSA), 38 progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and 42 corticobasal syndrome (CBS)) with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET to quantify the expression of previously validated disease-related patterns for PD, MSA, PSP, and CBS and 18F-fluoropropyl-β-CIT PET to quantify caudate and putamen dopamine transporter (DAT) binding. The patients in each group exhibited significant elevations in the expression of the corresponding disease-related pattern ( p < 0.001), relative to 16 healthy subjects. With the exception of cerebellar MSA (MSA-C), all groups displayed significant reductions in putamen DAT binding relative to healthy subjects ( p < 0.05). Correlations between the dopaminergic and metabolic measures were significant in PD and CBS but not in MSA and PSP. In all patient groups with the exception of MSA-C and CBS, pattern expression values and DAT binding correlated with disease duration and severity measures. The findings suggest that in these parkinsonian disorders, metabolic network expression and DAT binding provide complementary information regarding the underlying disease process.
Keywords: Dopamine imaging; PET; glucose metabolism; metabolic networks; parkinsonian disorders.