Publications by authors named "A Vijayakumari"
Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD) affects nearly half of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. However, the structural heterogeneity within the brainstem, which regulates REM sleep, remains largely unexplored in PD. Our objective was to identify distinct PD subtypes based on microstructural characteristics in the brainstem and examine their associations with the severity of RBD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Cognitive symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) may initially present subtly, often overshadowed by more noticeable motor symptoms. However, as PD progresses, predicting which individuals will experience significant cognitive decline becomes challenging due to variability, suggesting distinct PD subtypes with varying cognitive trajectories. This study aimed to identify early PD subtypes based on patterns of gray matter atrophy in brain regions associated with cognition and assess their distinct patterns of cognitive change over time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhile Parkinson's disease (PD)-related neurodegeneration is associated with structural changes in the brain, conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has proven less effective for clinical diagnosis due to its inability to reliably identify subtle changes early in the disease course. In this study, we aimed to develop a structural MRI-based biomarker to predict the rate of progression of motor symptoms in the early stages of PD. The study included 88 patients with PD and 120 healthy controls from the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative database; MRI at baseline and motor symptom scores assessed using the MDS-UPDRS-III at two time points (baseline and 48 months) were selected.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- MRI scans usually don't show important changes in the brain for people with Parkinson's disease, so researchers wanted to find a better way to track the disease using a special score from MRI data.
- They studied 150 patients over 10 years, looking at different motor symptoms like shaking and problems with movement.
- They discovered that higher scores from MRI data were connected to faster worsening of motor symptoms, which could help doctors keep better track of how the disease progresses.