Striatal FP-CIT uptake differs in the subtypes of early Parkinson's disease

In idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD), a tremor-dominant type (TDT), an akinetic-rigid type (ART), and a mixed type (MT) are distinguished. We compared cerebral [I-123]FP-CIT SPECT in the PD subtypes (67 patients Hoehn and Yahr stage 1:26 with ART, 19 with MT, 22 with TDT). We measured the ratios putamen/occipital lobe binding and caudate nucleus/occipital lobe binding. Parkinsonian motor symptoms were quantified by UPDRS motor scale. In both putamen and caudate nucleus contralateral to the clinically affected body side TDT patients showed a significantly higher FP-CIT uptake than ART or MT patients (ANOVA; p < 0.01). Contralateral putamen and caudate nucleus FP-CIT uptake correlated significantly with severity of rigidity (p < 0.01) and hypokinesia (p < 0.01) but not with severity of resting or postural tremor (p > 0.05). The missing correlation between striatal FP-CIT uptake and tremor suggests, that further systems besides the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system may contribute to generation of parkinsonian tremor.