Connectivity Alterations in Vascular Parkinsonism: A Structural Covariance Study

This study aimed to investigate the structural covariance between the striatum and large-scale brain regions in patients with vascular parkinsonism (VP) compared to Parkinson’s disease (PD) and control subjects, and then explore the relationship between brain connectivity and the clinical features of our patients. Forty subjects (13 VP, 15 PD, and 12 age-and-sex-matched healthy controls) were enrolled in this study. They each underwent a careful clinical and neuropsychological evaluation, DAT-SPECT scintigraphy and 3T MRI scan. While there were no differences between PD and VP in the disease duration and severity, nor in terms of the DAT-SPECT evaluations, VP patients had a reduction in structural covariance between the bilateral corpus striatum (both putamen and caudate) and several brain regions, including the insula, thalamus, hippocampus, anterior cingulate cortex and orbito-frontal cortex compared to PD and controls. VP patients also showed lower scores on several neuropsychological tests. Interestingly, in the VP group, structural connectivity alterations were significantly related to cognitive evaluations exploring executive functions, memory, anxiety and depression. This compelling evidence suggests that structural disconnection in the basal ganglia circuits spreading in critical cortical regions may be involved in the pathophysiology of cognitive impairment in VP.