Nagoya University · Medicine
Professor Hirohisa Watanabe's research lab specializes in neurodegenerative disorders, with a focus on atypical parkinsonism, particularly multiple system atrophy (MSA) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). The lab investigates the neuroimaging and neurochemical markers—such as cardiac MIBG scintigraphy and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS)—that enable early diagnosis and understanding of disease progression. Their work emphasizes the role of sympathetic nervous system dysfunction and neuronal metabolic changes in neurodegeneration.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
We investigated the disease progression and survival in 230 Japanese patients with multiple system atrophy (MSA; 131 men, 99 women; 208 probable MSA, 22 definite; mean age at onset, 55.4 years). Cerebellar dysfunction (multiple system atrophy-cerebellar; MSA-C) predominated in 155 patients, and parkinsonism (multiple system atrophy-parkinsonian; MSA-P) in 75. The median time from initial symptom to combined motor and autonomic dysfunction was 2 years (range 1-10). Median intervals from onset to
Cardiac (123)I-meta-iodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) uptake was measured in 11 patients with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), 10 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and 10 age matched control subjects. The severity of cognitive impairment and duration of symptoms in patients with DLB matched that in the patients with AD. The heart/mediastinum (H/M) ratio of MIBG uptake in the patients with AD was indistinguishable from that in the control subjects. However, the H/M ratio in all patients with DLB w
(1)H-MRS showed widespread neuronal and axonal involvement in MSA. The NAA/Cr reduction in the pontine base proved highly informative in the early diagnosis of MSA prior to MRI changes and even before any clinical manifestation of symptoms.
VH in PD can occur due to distinctive neuroanatomical involvement.
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