Diagnostic Sensitivity and Symptomatic Relevance of Dopamine Transporter Imaging and Myocardial Sympathetic Scintigraphy in Patients with Dementia with Lewy Bodies.

Background: Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) presents with various symptoms, posing challenges for early diagnosis challenging. Dopamine transporter (123I-FP-CIT) single-photon emission tomography (SPECT) and 123I-meta-iodobenzylguanidine (123I-MIBG) imaging are crucial diagnostic biomarkers. Hypothesis about body- and brain-first subtypes of DLB indicate that some DLB may show normal 123I-FP-CIT or 123I-MIBG results; but the characteristic expression of these two subtypes remains unclear. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic sensitivity of 123I-FP-CIT and 123I-MIBG imaging alone, combined in patients with DLB and explore symptoms associated with the abnormal imaging results. Methods: Demographic data, clinical status, and imaging results were retrospectively collected from patients diagnosed with possible DLB. Both images were quantified using semi-automated software, and the sensitivity of each imaging modality and their combination was calculated. Demographic data, cognition, and motor and non-motor symptoms were compared among the subgroups based on the imaging results. Symptoms related to each imaging abnormality were examined using binomial logistic regression analyses. Results: Among 114 patients with DLB, 80 underwent 123I-FP-CIT SPECT (sensitivity: 80.3%), 83 underwent 123I-MIBG imaging (68.2%), and 66 both (sensitivity of either abnormal result: 93.9%). Visual hallucinations differed among the four subgroups based on imaging results. Additionally, nocturia and orthostatic hypotension differed between abnormal and normal 123I-MIBG images. Conclusions: Overall, 123I-FP-CIT SPECT was slightly higher sensitivity than 123I-MIBG imaging, with combined imaging increasing diagnostic sensitivity. Normal results of a single imaging test may not refute DLB. Autonomic symptoms may lead to abnormal 123I-MIBG scintigraphy findings indicating body-first subtype of patients with DLB.

Neuropathological features of levodopa-responsive parkinsonism in multiple system atrophy: an autopsy case report and comparative neuropathological study.

Background: In typical patients with multiple system atrophy with predominant parkinsonism (MSA-P) levodopa is ineffective. However, there are some of these patients who respond well to levodopa treatment. Levodopa efficacy in MSA-P patients is thought to be related to the degree of putaminal damage, but the pathological causation between the putaminal involvement and levodopa efficacy has not been established in detail. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the neuropathological features of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system in a "levodopa-responsive" MSA-P patient in comparison with "levodopa-unresponsive" conventional MSA-P patients. Materials and methods: Clinicopathological findings were assessed in a 53-year-old Japanese man with MSA who presented with asymmetric parkinsonism, levodopa response, and later wearing-off phenomenon. During autopsy, the nigrostriatal pathology of presynaptic and postsynaptic dopaminergic receptor density and α-synuclein status were investigated. The other two patients with MSA-P were examined using the same pathological protocol. Results: Four years after the onset, the patient died of sudden cardiopulmonary arrest. On autopsy, numerous α-synuclein-positive glial cytoplasmic inclusions in the basal ganglia, pons, and cerebellum were identified. The number of neurons in the putamen and immunoreactivity for dopamine receptors were well-preserved. In contrast, significant neuronal loss and decreased dopamine receptor immunoreactivity in the putamen were observed in the "levodopa-unresponsive" MSA-P control patients. These putaminal pathology results were consistent with the findings of premortem magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). All three patients similarly exhibited severe neuronal loss in the substantia nigra and decreased immunoreactivity for dopamine transporter. Conclusion: Levodopa responsiveness in patients with MSA-P may be corroborated by the normal putamen on MRI and the preserved postsynaptic nigrostriatal dopaminergic system on pathological examination. The results presented in this study may provide a rationale for continuation of levodopa treatment in patients diagnosed with MSA-P.

Multiple Cerebral Infarctions Complicating Deep Vein Thrombosis Associated With Uterine Adenomyosis: A Case Report and Literature Review.

We describe a 46-year-old woman who developed multiple cerebral infarctions in the left middle cerebral artery territory and deep vein thrombosis, presumably related to uterine adenomyosis. Uterine adenomyosis can cause coagulation abnormalities, as observed in Trousseau's syndrome. Along with previous reports, our case experienced a stroke during menstruation and presented with increased cancer antigen 125 (CA125) levels. A hysterectomy was performed to prevent the recurrence of cerebral infarction. Our case also had complicated deep vein thrombosis, which is also known as a complication of uterine adenomyosis. We consider cerebral infarction and deep vein thrombosis with uterine adenomyosis might be caused by a common mechanism, hypercoagulation. Hysterectomy requires careful discussion before undergoing it because of fertility problems, but it might be the most effective approach for preventing the recurrence of brain infarction derived from adenomyosis and may be effective for both cerebral infarction and deep vein thrombosis.

Coexistence of neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: an autopsy case.

BACKGROUND: Neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease (NIID) is a rare neurodegenerative disease. Pathologically, it is characterized by eosinophilic hyaline intranuclear inclusions in the cells of the visceral organs as well as central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous system cells. Recently, a GGC repeat expansion in the NOTCH2NLC gene has been identified as the etiopathological agent of NIID. Interestingly, this GGC repeat expansion was also reported in some patients with a clinical diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). However, there are no autopsy-confirmed cases of concurrent NIID and ALS. CASE PRESENTATION: A 60-year-old Taiwanese woman reported a four-month history of progressive weakness beginning in the right foot that spread to all four extremities. She was diagnosed with ALS because she met the revised El Escorial diagnostic criteria for definite ALS with upper and lower motor neuron involvement in the cervical, thoracic, and lumbosacral regions. She died of respiratory failure at 22 months from ALS onset, at the age of 62 years. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed lesions in the medial part of the cerebellar hemisphere, right beside the vermis (paravermal lesions). The subclinical neuropathy, indicated by a nerve conduction study (NCS), prompted a potential diagnosis of NIID. Antemortem skin biopsy and autopsy confirmed the coexistence of pathology consistent with both ALS and NIID. We observed neither eccentric distribution of p62-positive intranuclear inclusions in the areas with abundant large motor neurons nor cytopathological coexistence of ALS and NIID pathology in motor neurons. This finding suggested that ALS and NIID developed independently in this patient. CONCLUSIONS: We describe a case of concurrent NIID and ALS discovered during an autopsy. Abnormal brain MRI findings, including paravermal lesions, could indicate the coexistence of NIID even in patients with ALS showing characteristic clinical phenotypes.