Transcranial Sonography Of Neuroimaging Characteristics In Depression Patients With Parkinson’s Disease

Background Parkinson’s disease(PD)is a common neurodegenerative disease,the clinical features are complex,including two major syndromes:motor system symptoms and non-motor symptoms.The clinical features of the motor system is more outstanding,which has attracted more attention of the scholars,and the symptoms of non-motor system are often hidden because of the disease,but are easily ignored and sometimes will cause serious consequences.Depression is one of the most common non-motor symptoms of PD,which seriously affects the quality of life of patients with PD.In recent years,transcranial sonography(TCS)as an auxiliary examination of PD,which has many characteristics,such as convenient,affordable,good repeatability and the compliance requirements.TCS has been widely recognized by foreign scholars,but is still in its infancy in china.TCS can explore the echogenicity changes of brainstem raphe(BR)and substantia nigra(SN),but whether TCS can assist the diagnosis of PD patients with depression(PD+D)we need to be further explored.Objiectives The purpose of our study was to compare and analyze the transcranial ultrasound neuroimaging characteristics in Parkinson’s disease patients with or without depression,and discuss the value of transcranial sonography in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis between PD with depression and PD without depression(PD-D).Methods Transcranial sonography was performed in 50 PD+D,50 PD-D,50depression and 50 healthy controls,then compare and analyze the alteration of BR and SN between the four groups.Results Among the four groups,SN hyperechogenicity was observed in(80.0%,40/50)of patients with PD+D and(86.0%,43/50)of patients with PD-D,a greater prevalence than in depression(8.0%,4/50)and controls(10.0%,5/50)(?~2=110.07,P<0.01),the rate of abnormal BR echogenicity was significantly higher in patients with PD+D(78.0%,39/50)and depresssion(82.0%,41/50)(?~2=87.80,P<0.01).Conclusions The echogenicity changes of BR and SN on TCS could provide some useful neuroimaging for the diagnosis and differential diagnosis betweeen PD+D and PD-D.