Is R2* a new MRI biomarker for the progression of Parkinson's disease? A longitudinal follow-up

To study changes of iron content in basal ganglia in Parkinson's disease (PD) through a three-year longitudinal follow-up of the effective transverse relaxation rate R2*, a validated MRI marker of brain iron content which can be rapidly measured under clinical conditions.

Twenty-seven PD patients and 26 controls were investigated by a first MRI (t0). Longitudinal analysis was conducted among the 18 controls and 14 PD patients who underwent a second MRI (t1) 3 years after. The imaging protocol consisted in 6 gradient echo images obtained at different echo-times for mapping R2*. Quantitative exploration of basal ganglia was performed by measuring the variation of R2* [R2*(t1) - R2*(t0)] in several regions of interest.

During the three-year evolution of PD, R2* increased in Substantia nigra (SN) (by 10.2% in pars compacta, p = 0.001, and 8.1% in pars reticulata, p = 0.013) and in the caudal putamen (11.4%, p = 0.011), without significant change in controls. Furthermore, we showed a positive correlation between the variation of R2* and the worsening of motor symptoms of PD (p = 0.028).

Significant variation of R2* was longitudinally observed in the SN and caudal putamen of patients with PD evolving over a three-year period, emphasizing its interest as a biomarker of disease progression. Our results suggest that R2* MRI follow-up could be an interesting tool for individual assessment of neurodegeneration due to PD, and also be useful for testing the efficiency of disease-modifying treatments.