Background: Patients with Parkinson's disease have reduced gray matter volume and fractional anisotropy in both cortical and sub-cortical structures, yet changes in the pre-motor phase of the disease are unknown.
Methods: A comprehensive imaging study using voxel-based morphometry and diffusion tensor imaging tract-based spatial statistics analysis was performed on 64 Ashkenazi Jewish asymptomatic first degree relatives of patients with Parkinson's disease (30 mutation carriers), who carry the G2019S mutation in the leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) gene.
Results: No between-group differences in gray matter volume could be noted in either whole-brain or volume-of-interest analysis. Diffusion tensor imaging analysis did not identify group differences in white matter areas, and volume-of-interest analysis identified no differences in diffusivity parameters in Parkinson's disease-related structures.
Conclusions: G2019S carriers do not manifest changes in gray matter volume or diffusivity parameters in Parkinson's disease-related structures prior to the appearance of motor symptoms.
Keywords: G2019S; LRRK2; Parkinson's disease; diffusion tensor imaging; magnetic resonance imaging; voxel-based morphometry.
© 2014 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.