Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Progression of substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) iron content in early-stage Parkinson's patients (PD) is poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: To determine if nigral iron measured by quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) with zero-referencing can track disease progression in early-stage PD. METHODS: Thirty-four early-stage PD patients and 35 matched controls were recruited. Iron content in the SNc and related regions were obtained using QSM with zero-referencing at both baseline and 1-year follow-up, along with clinical metrics. RESULTS: Of seven clinic metrics and five regional iron measures, only Movement Disorder Society-Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale-Part II (MDS-UPDRS-II) (P = 0.046) and SNc iron (P = 0.0025 for cerebrospinal fluid zero-referencing; P = 0.014 for whole-brain zero-referencing) showed significant changes in PD subjects in the 1-year epoch. The changes in SNc iron were also correlated with changes in MDS-UPDRS-II (P = 0.004). CONCLUSION: Nigral iron content measured by zero-referencing QSM can be used to track disease progression in early-stage PD over the 1-year epoch. © 2026 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.
Source: Movement Disorders
DOI: 10.1002/mds.70497
Language: English
Subfield: Neurology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: G1195599448, G2013862128, G3158255397, G4477927434, Multimodal MRI markers of nigrostriatal pathology in Parkinson's disease, Structural MRI marker(s) of Parkinson's Disease's Progression, Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute, G7184555466, G9000050448, G9000156441, Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute
OpenAlex ID: W7208818782