Developing a Magnetic Resonance Imaging Biomarker for Parkinson's

Research summary

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive, neurodegenerative disorder characterised by the motor symptoms of resting tremor, rigidity, slowness of movement and poor balance. At the time these symptoms first emerge, and the clinical diagnosis of PD can be made, approximately 70% of the dopaminergic brain cells have already been irreversibly lost. Loss of these brain cells, which are critical for movement generation, may begin 5-15 years prior to the onset of first motor symptoms. Early treatment intervention is likely to have the biggest impact on the course of the disease, however this is hampered by a lack of certainty about the diagnosis in the early stages when motor symptoms first emerge. PD is currently a clinical diagnosis with at best a 50% error rate in primary care, and a 10-15% error rate in specialist clinics compared to gold standard pathological tissue diagnosis at postmortem. Functional brain scans including Positron emission tomography (PET) and Single Photon Emission Computerised Tomography (SPECT) can aid earlier diagnosis, however these scans are expensive (>£1000 per scan), involve exposure to ionising radiation, lack specificity in distinguishing PD from other atypical parkinsonian disorders, and can only be administered in relatively small numbers at specialist centres. A study from our centre scanned the brain using a technique called resting state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (RsfMRI), and was able to distinguish 32 early PD from 19 control subjects with 90-100% accuracy (Szewczyk-Krolikowski K. Neurology 2014, PMID: 24920856.). This study was done using a research MRI scanner in relatively small subject numbers. The aim of this research is to develop a novel MRI biomarker that would significantly improve the accuracy of early diagnosis of PD, that could be translated into routine NHS care at relatively low cost with broad applicability.

Principal Investigator

Prof Michele Hu

Contact us

Email: dendron@ouh.nhs.uk

IRAS number

171891