Lacunes may worsen cognition but not motor function in Parkinson's disease

• Published in: Brain and behavior Vol. 13; no. 2; pp. e2880 - n/a
• Main Authors: Chen, Keke, Jin, Zhaohui, Fang, Jinping, Qi, Lin, Liu, Cui, Wang, Ruidan, Su, Yuan, Yan, Hongjiao, Liu, Aixian, Xi, Jianing, Fang, Boyan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01-02-2023; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: Basal Ganglia; Body mass index; Brain; Cerebral Small Vessel Diseases - complications; Cerebrospinal fluid; Cognition; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive Dysfunction - pathology; Humans; lacunes; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; motor function; Movement disorders; Original; Parkinson Disease - complications; Parkinson Disease - diagnostic imaging; Parkinson Disease - pathology; Parkinson's disease; Parkinson's disease; motor function; cognition; lacunes
• ISSN: 2162-3279; 2162-3279
• DOI: 10.1002/brb3.2880

Background
As one of the imaging markers of cerebral small vessel disease, lacunes has received little attention. The objective of this study was to investigate the associations of lacunes, cognition and motor function in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and whether these associations are independent of other imaging markers.
Methods
Patients were consecutively included from April 2019 to July 2022 in Beijing Rehabilitation Hospital. All patients underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging scans, clinical scale evaluations, and neuropsychological tests, as well as quantitative evaluation of postural control. To eliminate the possible factors contributing to cognition and motor dysfunction in patients with PD, in particular white matter hyperintensities and enlarged perivascular space in the basal ganglia, multivariate linear regression models were constructed to sort out the effect of lacunes.
Results
Ninety‐four patients were included in this study, 56 without lacunes and 38 with lacunes. Patients with lacunes showed shorter disease duration, slower gait speed and spent more time on Trail‐Making Test part A (TMT‐A) than those without lacunes. The number of lacunes were positively correlated with the time to complete the TMT‐A and negatively related to gait speed. Multivariate linear regression models showed that the presence of lacunes was associated with longer TMT‐A time after adjusting for potential confounders.
Conclusions
Lacunes were independently associated with worse visual scanning, attention, and processing speed in patients with PD. In addition, lacunes may accelerate the course of PD. Early treatment of vascular disease provides an alternate way to mitigate some motor and cognitive dysfunction in patients with PD.
Highlights
Lacunes were independently associated with worse visual scanning, attention, and processing speed in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD).
Lacunes may accelerate the course of PD.
Early treatment of vascular disease provides an alternate way to mitigate some motor and cognitive dysfunction in patients with PD.