Attending Physician Nantong First People's Hospital nantong, Jiangsu, China (People's Republic)
Objectives : Using the MEGA-PRESS sequence, we measured cerebellar GABA levels in patients with Parkinson’s disease and investigated their correlation with non-motor symptoms of PD.
Design: Sixteen PD patients were enrolled as the experimental group, together with age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers serving as controls. All participants underwent clinical rating-scale assessments and magnetic resonance imaging at baseline.
Disease stage was evaluated with the modified Hoehn & Yahr scale; motor symptoms were assessed with the UPDRS-III. Anxiety was quantified by the Hamilton Anxiety Scale and depression by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Non-motor symptom burden was measured with the Non-Motor Symptoms Scale, and quality of life with the Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire-39. Global cognition was screened with the Mini-Mental State Examination and Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Memory was tested with the Chinese revision of the Auditory Verbal Learning Test, visuospatial construction with the Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure Test, and attention/executive function with the Stroop Color–Word Test and Symbol Digit Modalities Test.
Correlations between cerebellar GABA concentrations and individual non-motor symptom scores were examined using Spearman’s rank correlation.
Results:
Cerebellar GABA and Glx concentrations, as well as the excitation/inhibition (E/I) ratio, did not differ between healthy controls (HC) and PD patients.
In PD patients, higher cerebellar GABA correlated negatively with AVLT-H short-delay recall, long-delay recall, and Symbol Digit Modalities Test scores.
In PD patients, a higher cerebellar E/I ratio correlated positively with AVLT-H short-delay and long-delay recall scores, and the left cerebellar E/I ratio also correlated positively with Symbol Digit Modalities Test performance.
Conclusion: In patients with Parkinson’s disease, higher cerebellar GABA levels measured by MRS were associated with poorer memory, attention, and executive function, whereas an elevated cerebellar excitation/inhibition ratio correlated with better performance in these same cognitive domains.
