Magnetic susceptibility source separation for assessing motor and cognitive functions in Parkinson disease

Iron and myelin alterations contribute to the progression of Parkinson disease (PD). This study aimed to evaluate the associations of iron-related positive susceptibility and myelin-related negative susceptibility with motor and cognitive functions, and assess their utility in classifying PD with normal cognition (PD-CN) and with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI).

We retrospectively reviewed 59 patients with PD-MCI and 58 with PD-CN. Magnetic susceptibility values were extracted using magnetic susceptibility source separation. Correlations of motor and cognitive functions with susceptibility values were evaluated, and classification models were developed to distinguish PD-MCI from PD-CN.

Positive susceptibility correlated with Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) part III off-state scores in the right internal globus pallidus and substantia nigra (r = 0.750 [95 % CI: 0.659 to 0.830], 0.758 [95 % CI: 0.681 to 0.822]) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores in the right caudate nucleus (r = -0.644 [95 % CI: -0.742 to -0.521]). Negative susceptibility correlated with MDS-UPDRS part III off-state scores in the bilateral external globus pallidus (right: r = 0.299 [95 % CI: 0.091 to 0.453], left: r = 0.285 [95 % CI: 0.112 to 0.444]). The positive susceptibility model achieved a sensitivity of 0.780 (95 % CI: 0.776 to 0.782), specificity of 0.793 (95 % CI: 0.790 to 0.796), and an ROC AUC of 0.856 (95 % CI: 0.855 to 0.859).

Positive and negative susceptibility values were associated with motor and cognitive function in PD and proved effective in differentiating PD-MCI from PD-CN.