Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30514656›Full record

SynthesisNeuroImage. Clinical2019

FDG-PET hypometabolism is more sensitive than MRI atrophy in Parkinson's disease: A whole-brain multimodal imaging meta-analysis.

Franziska Albrecht, Tommaso Ballarini, Jane Neumann, Matthias L Schroeter

Open access · goldAbstract readMeta-Analysis
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in NeuroImage. Clinical, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
55citing papers in PubMed, 4 pooled it
5.4field-weighted citation impact, top 4% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

55 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 78 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  6. Review
  7. Review
  8. Spatiotemporal Progression Patterns of Striatal Dopamine Depletion and Cerebral Hypoperfusion in Parkinson's Disease.Movement disorders : official journal of the Movement Disorder Society · 2026
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  19. Brain [Brain communications · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Franziska AlbrechtMax Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany. Electronic address: falbrecht@cbs.mpg.de.
Tommaso BallariniMax Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany. Electronic address: tommaso@cbs.mpg.de.
Jane NeumannMax Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany; Leipzig University Medical Center, IFB Adiposity Diseases, Leipzig, Germany; Department of Medical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Applied Science, Jena, Germany. Electronic address: neumann@cbs.mpg.de.
Matthias L SchroeterMax Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany; Clinic of Cognitive Neurology, University of Leipzig & FTLD Consortium Germany, Leipzig, Germany. Electronic address: schroet@cbs.mpg.de.
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences · DEErnst Abbe University of Applied Sciences Jena · DE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Recently, revised diagnostic criteria for Parkinson's disease (PD) were introduced (Postuma et al., 2015). Yet, except for well-established dopaminergic imaging, validated imaging biomarkers for PD are still missing, though they could improve diagnostic accuracy. We conducted systematic meta-analyses to identify PD-specific markers in whole-brain structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies. Overall, 74 studies were identified including 2323 patients and 1767 healthy controls. Studies were first grouped according to imaging modalities (MRI 50; PET 14; DTI 10) and then into subcohorts based on clinical phenotypes. To ensure reliable results, we combined established meta-analytical algorithms - anatomical likelihood estimation and seed-based D mapping - and cross-validated them in a conjunction analysis. Glucose hypometabolism was found using FDG-PET extensively in bilateral inferior parietal cortex and left caudate nucleus with both meta-analytic methods. This hypometabolism pattern was confirmed in subcohort analyses and related to cognitive deficits (inferior parietal cortex) and motor symptoms (caudate nucleus). Structural MRI showed only small focal gray matter atrophy in the middle occipital gyrus that was not confirmed in subcohort analyses. DTI revealed fractional anisotropy reductions in the cingulate bundle near the orbital and anterior cingulate gyri in PD. Our results suggest that FDG-PET reliably identifies consistent functional brain abnormalities in PD, whereas structural MRI and DTI show only focal alterations and rather inconsistent results. In conclusion, FDG-PET hypometabolism outperforms structural MRI in PD, although both imaging methods do not offer disease-specific imaging biomarkers for PD.

Indexed as

Diffusion Tensor ImagingPositron-Emission TomographyAgedBrainCognitive DysfunctionFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedMultimodal ImagingNeuroimagingParkinson DiseaseDTIFDG-PETMeta-analysisMRIParkinson's disease

Identifiers

PMID30514656
PMCPMC6413303
OpenAlexW2901771964

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.