Myocardial sympathetic degeneration correlates with clinical phenotype of Parkinson's disease

In idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD), different clinical subtypes are distinguished due to predominant motor symptoms: a tremor-dominant type (TDT), an akinetic rigid type (ART), and a mixed type (MT). We compared myocardial sympathetic innervation, measured by MIBG scintigraphy, in different subtypes of PD at early and advanced stages of PD. We applied MIBG scintigraphy in 102 patients with PD. About 57 patients were at Hoehn and Yahr (H ANOVA). Furthermore, at each H Spearman's correlation) and rigidity (P < 0.05), but not with severity of resting or postural tremor. The significant correlation between myocardial sympathetic degeneration and severity of hypokinesia and rigidity suggests that myocardial sympathetic degeneration and hypokinetic-rigid symptoms develop in a closely coupled manner in early as well as advanced PD. No such correlation can be found between myocardial sympathetic degeneration and parkinsonian tremor.