Increased Subcortical Sodium Levels in Patients with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

Jannik Prasuhn; Martin Göttlich; Sinja S Großer; Katharina Reuther; Britt Ebeling; Christina Bodemann; Henrike Hanssen; Armin M Nagel; Norbert Brüggemann

doi:10.3390/biomedicines10071728

Increased Subcortical Sodium Levels in Patients with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

Biomedicines. 2022 Jul 18;10(7):1728. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines10071728.

Authors

Jannik Prasuhn^{1

2

3}, Martin Göttlich^{2

3}, Sinja S Großer^{1

2

3}, Katharina Reuther^{1

2

3}, Britt Ebeling^{1

2

3}, Christina Bodemann^{1

2

3}, Henrike Hanssen^{1

2

3}, Armin M Nagel^{4

5}, Norbert Brüggemann^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Neurogenetics, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany.
² Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Schleswig Holstein, 23538 Lübeck, Germany.
³ Center for Brain, Behavior and Metabolism, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany.
⁴ Institute of Radiology, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), 91054 Erlangen, Germany.
⁵ Division of Medical Physics in Radiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.

Abstract

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disease characterized by an aggressive disease course. Total and intracellular-weighted sodium imaging (²³Na-MRI) is a promising method for investigating neurodegeneration in vivo. We enrolled 10 patients with PSP and 20 age- and gender-matched healthy control subjects; all study subjects underwent a neurological examination, whole-brain structural, and (total and intracellular-weighted) ²³Na-MRI. Voxel-wise analyses revealed increased brainstem total sodium content in PSP that correlated with disease severity. The ROI-wise analysis highlighted additional sodium level changes in other regions implicated in the pathophysiology of PSP. ²³Na-MRI yields substantial benefits for the diagnostic workup of patients with PSP and adds complementary information on the underlying neurodegenerative tissue changes in PSP.

Keywords: 23Na-MRI; PSP; heteronuclear MRI; neurodegeneration; progressive supranuclear palsy.

Grants and funding

J.P. received funding from the Parkinson’s Foundation, the Deutsche Parkinsongesellschaft, and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft via the Clinician Scientist School Lübeck (DFG- GEPRIS 413535489). NB received funding from the Deutsche Forschungs-Gemeinschaft (BR4328.2-1 [FOR2488], GRK1957), the Michael J Fox Foundation and the EU Joint Programme.