Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 3, 2025
Standardized Data Acquisition for Neuromelanin-Sensitive Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Substantia Nigra
Published on: September 8, 2021
Locus Coeruleus Degeneration in Essential Tremor With Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Neuromelanin MRI Study
Yuelin Fang1, Cheng Zhou2, Bingting Zhu1
1Department of Neurology, the Fourth Affiliated Hospital, International Institutes of Medicine, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
Objective:
Our aim was to research the neuromelanin-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging (NM-MRI) features of the locus coeruleus (LC) in essential tremor (ET) patients of various cognitive states and to explore the relationships between these features and cognition.
Methods:
We recruited three groups of participants, including 30 ET patients with mild cognitive impairment (ET-MCI), 57 ET patients with normal cognition (ET-NC), and 105 healthy controls (HCs). All participants underwent MRI scanning and clinical evaluation. Through NM-MRI images, we compared the contrast-to-noise ratio of LC (CNRLC) between groups and evaluated the relationships between CNRLC and cognitive scales.
Results:
Compared to HCs, ET-MCI patients had a substantially lower CNRLC value (p = 0.017). The CNRLC of ET-NC patients was intermediate between that of ET-MCI patients and HCs. Furthermore, a partial correlation analysis in ET-MCI patients, controlling for age, gender, and education level, showed that higher CNRLC values correlate with better performance on the Montreal cognitive assessment test and the trail making test A.
Conclusion:
LC degeneration in ET patients may partially contribute to cognitive decline, suggesting that the LC norepinephrine system deserves further research on the mechanism of cognitive decline of ET patients as well as the development of targeted drugs.
