Quantitative brain stem assessment in discriminating neurodegenerative disorders from normal pressure hydrocephalus

Charalampos Georgiopoulos; Stergios Papadimitriou; Dag Nyholm; Lena Kilander; Malin Löwenmark; David Fällmar; Johan Virhammar

doi:10.1111/jon.13204

Quantitative brain stem assessment in discriminating neurodegenerative disorders from normal pressure hydrocephalus

J Neuroimaging. 2024 Apr 26. doi: 10.1111/jon.13204. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Charalampos Georgiopoulos¹, Stergios Papadimitriou², Dag Nyholm², Lena Kilander³, Malin Löwenmark³, David Fällmar⁴, Johan Virhammar²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
² Department of Medical Sciences, Neurology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
³ Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Geriatrics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
⁴ Department of Surgical Sciences, Neuroradiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.

PMID: 38676300
DOI: 10.1111/jon.13204

Abstract

Background and purpose: Differentiating idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) from neurodegenerative disorders such as progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), Multiple System Atrophy-parkinsonian type (MSA-P), and vascular dementia (VaD) is challenging due to overlapping clinical and neuroimaging findings. This study assesses if quantitative brain stem and cerebellum metrics can aid in this differentiation.

Methods: We retrospectively compared the sagittal midbrain area, midbrain to pons ratio, MR parkinsonism index (MRPI), and cerebellar atrophy in 30 PSP patients, 31 iNPH patients, 27 MSA-P patients, 32 VaD patients, and 25 healthy controls. Statistical analyses determined group differences, sensitivity, specificity, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves.

Results: There was an overlap in midbrain morphology between PSP and iNPH, as assessed with MRPI, midbrain to pons ratio, and midbrain area. A cutoff value of MRPI > 13 exhibited 84% specificity in distinguishing PSP from iNPH and 100% in discriminating PSP from all other conditions. A cutoff value of midbrain to pons ratio at <0.15 yielded 95% specificity for differentiating PSP from iNPH and 100% from all other conditions. A cutoff value of midbrain area at <87 mm² exhibited 97% specificity for differentiating PSP from iNPH and 100% from all other conditions. All measures showed low sensitivity. Cerebellar atrophy did not differ significantly among groups.

Conclusion: Our study questions MRPI's diagnostic performance in distinguishing PSP from iNPH. Simpler indices such as midbrain to pons ratio and midbrain area showed similar or better accuracy. However, all these indices displayed low sensitivity despite significant differences among PSP, MSA-P, and VaD.

Keywords: MR parkinsonism index; idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus; midbrain to pons ratio; multiple system atrophy; progressive supranuclear palsy; vascular dementia.

Abstract

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