Abstract
PURPOSE: Dopamine transporter imaging is suggested to be a useful imaging biomarker for Parkinson's disease (PD) progression and monitoring drug effects. We investigated the longitudinal decline characteristics of striatal [(18)F]FP-CIT uptake in PD. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 35 PD patients and 9 non-PD patients. All patients underwent [(18)F]FP-CIT PET at the initial diagnosis and follow-up. PET images were spatially normalized and analyzed with eight striatal and one occipital VOI templates. We measured the specific to non-specific binding ratio (SNBR) of the striatal subregions and calculated the absolute annual reduction (AAR) and relative annual reduction (%RAR) of the SNBRs. RESULTS: Total striatal SNBRs in PD patients were significantly lower than those in non-PD patients, with the most significant difference in the posterior putamen. Both AAR (0.26 ± 0.14 vs. 0.09 ± 0.19, p < 0.05) and %RAR (6.9 ± 3.5 vs. 1.2 ± 2.7, p < 0.001) of total striatal SNBRs were significantly greater in PD than non-PD patients. There were no significant differences in the AAR and %RAR of total striatal SNBRs between elderly and young onset PD. The AARs of the posterior putamen were higher in early PD than in advanced PD. Conversely, the %RARs were not significantly different between early and more advanced PD. The disease duration was significantly negatively correlated with the AAR but not with the %RAR of the posterior putamen. CONCLUSIONS: The longitudinal decline of striatal [(18)F]FP-CIT uptake in PD was nonlinear and significantly faster than that in non-PD, with a different rate of decline among the striatal subregions.