Magnetic resonance imaging for the diagnosis of Parkinson’s
A research published on Brain, has highlighted the possibility of using magnetic resonance imaging for early diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease with 95% reliability.
After that Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease is the most common degenerative brain disease characterized by progressive tremor and difficulty in movement. Despite technological change, today its diagnosis is mainly based on neurological medical examination, performed when the disease has already been started and show its symptoms. A recent study by Italian and French – to be published shortly in the authoritative journal “Brain” – now leaves a glimpse of new diagnostic possibilities for early detection of this disease. The research has highlighted the possibility of distinguishing those who are suffering from healthy ones through a special examination of MRI, with more than 95% reliability. This important progress has been made possible by the Italian-French collaboration between researchers Saint Lucia Foundation IRCCS of Rome and INSERM-Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medical of Toulouse.
The results of the study – already available online – and open new interesting perspectives in the diagnosis and evolution of this disease over time, especially given the continued aging of the population. Parkinson’s disease, which affects a mean age of 55 years and is more common over 60 years, has an incidence rate that increases dramatically with age: from 20 cases per 100 thousand in the total population goes to 120 cases per 100 thousand in the population over 70 years. In Italy the disease affects about 2% of the population over 65 years.
Looking through the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) a group of 52 individuals (30 affected by Parkinson’s disease and 22 healthy), has been identified a combination of three indices of the composition of brain tissue (amount of iron, integrity and orientation of the microscopic components) that is abnormal findings in the striatum and substantia nigra of patients affected by the disease. The microscopic components of brain tissue were represented, as well as minerals such as iron, from the movement and direction of water molecules: parameters can give information about how you made a particular area or structure of the brain.
The examination was performed with a unit devoted solely to research and equipped with specific technical characteristics (including a higher magnetic field). Note that with a classic MRI examination the striatum and substantia nigra are also normal in parkinsonian subjects, while a device and a dedicated program – such as those with which the research was conducted between Italy and France – you can highlight changes . Early identification of these changes would require more advance a therapy based on neuroprotective drugs, therefore, could prove more effective and enhance the development of new therapeutic strategies.
The scientific work in Italy had the support of the Ministry of Health and is part of the larger study project called “Imaging techniques and biomarkers of disease progression, on the structure and functioning of the brain in degenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
In our country the study was coordinated by the Department of Radiology, Saint Lucia Foundation, directed by Umberto Sabatini, and led by Patrice Peran, a young French researcher INSERM, under the supervision of prof. Carlo Caltagirone, scientific director of the Foundation. In France, the research team was coordinated by dr. Pierre Celsis, director of the Laboratory Imagerie et Handicaps Brain Research Unit INSERM U825 Neurologiques. The collaboration between the two institutions now aim to extend the study to a broader population of individuals so as to define in a systematic way to use this type of examination for the evaluation of magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, with early diagnosis and the possibility of treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. A goal that emphasizes Sabatini: “The disease is highly debilitating and it is important that research in this field find new solutions for early diagnosis and the development of new therapies. The results of our study are extremely promising, if confirmed on a more large sample of subjects will have repercussions that will affect a portion of the population potentially at risk, both for age and in relation to any family history. ”
