Cortical cerebral atrophy in patients with Parkinson’s disease: New opportunities for in vivo diagnostics

Abstract

The Parkinson’s disease (PD) pathology is not limited to degeneration of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system, but also includes the wide lesion of various regions of cerebral cortex. In our study we aimed to identify differences in the brain cortical thickness in patients with early and advanced PD using MRI morphometry. Sixty-seven patients with Hoehn–Yahr stages 2 and 3 were examined. All patients underwent MRI with subsequent post-processing and estimation of cortical thickness values in different brain regions. Significant differences in the visual and cingulate cortex, fusiform gyri, frontopolar zone of a dominant hemisphere, and Brodmann’s areas 1, 2, 3, and 4 of a non-dominant hemisphere were obtained. These data show relationship between the non-motor manifestations of PD and degeneration of certain cortical regions of the brain.