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Corpus Callosal Atrophy in PD and Cognitive Decline
Neurology; ePub 2017 Feb 24; Goldman, et al
Notable volume loss occurs in the corpus callosum in Parkinson's disease (PD), with specific neuroanatomic distributions in PD with dementia (PDD) and relationships of regional atrophy to different cognitive domains, a recent study found. 100 patients with PD and 24 healthy controls underwent clinical and neuropsychological evaluations and structural MRI brain scans. Participants with PD were classified as cognitively normal (PD-NC; n=28), having mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI; n=47), or PDD (n=25) by Movement Disorder Society criteria. Researchers found:
- Participants with PD had reduced corpus callosum volumes in mid-anterior and central regions compared to healthy controls.
- Participants with PDD demonstrated decreased callosal volumes involving multiple subsections spanning anterior to posterior compared to participants with PD-MCI and PD-NC.
- Regional callosal atrophy predicted cognitive domain performance such that central volumes were associated with the attention/working memory domain; mid-posterior volumes with executive function, language, and memory domains; and posterior volumes with memory and visuospatial domains.
Goldman JG, Bledsoe IO, Merkitch D, Dinh V, Bernard B, Stebbins GT. Corpus callosal atrophy and associations with cognitive impairment in Parkinson disease. [Published online ahead of print February 24, 2017]. Neurology. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000003764.