Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 17, 2025
Abbiategrasso Brain Bank Protocol for Collecting, Processing and Characterizing Aging Brains
Published on: June 3, 2020
Association of PSP phenotypes with survival: A brain-bank study
Mar Guasp1, Laura Molina-Porcel2, Celia Painous1
1Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Unit, Neurology Service, IDIBAPS, CIBERNED (Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas: CB06/05/0018-ISCIII), ERN-RND Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
Introduction:
The MDS-PSP criteria expand the phenotypic spectrum of PSP by adding to Richardson's syndrome (PSP-RS) other presentations such as PSP-parkinsonism (PSP-P), PSP-pure-gait-freezing (PSP-PGF), PSP-speech-language (PSP-SL), PSP-frontal (PSP-F), PSP-postural-instability (PSP-PI) and PSP-corticobasal-syndrome (PSP-CBS). Evidence about the prognostic differences between PSP phenotypes is scarce and focused on PSP-RS vs. non-PSP-RS. Using a brain-bank cohort we assessed PSP survival not only in PSP-RS vs. non-PSP-RS, but also in PSP-RS + cortical vs. subcortical phenotypes. Besides, we assessed sensitivity and specificity of the MDS-PSP criteria in of PSP and other degenerative parkinsonisms.
Methods:
We retrospectively applied the MDS-PSP diagnostic criteria to 32 definite PSP cases and 30 cases with other degenerative parkinsonian syndromes (Parkinson's disease [PD; n = 11], multiple system atrophy [MSA; n = 11], corticobasal degeneration [CBD; n = 8]). We conducted survival statistics in neuropathologically confirmed PSP cases considering PSP-RS vs. non-PSP-RS and PSP-RS + PSP-cortical (PSP-F + PSP-SL + PSP-CBS) vs. PSP-subcortical (PSP-P + PSP-PGF) phenotypes. We also adjusted survival analyses for PSP tau scores.
Results:
Diagnostic sensitivity was 100% and specificity ranged from 47% to 87% when excluding cases that met the "suggestive of PSP" definition early in their disease course but with other clinical features better matching with a non-PSP pathological diagnosis. Survival was significantly shorter in PSP-RS vs. non-PSP-RS cases, but it was more markedly shorter in PSP-RS + PSP-cortical vs. PSP-subcortical, independently of PSP tau scores, which were not associated with survival.
Conclusions:
PSP-subcortical phenotypes appear to have longer survival than PSP-RS and cortical phenotypes. This might be of prognostic relevance when informing patients upon clinical diagnosis.
