Andrea Quattrone, MD: Developing Simple and Accurate Biomarkers for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

“We developed this new biomarker, which is based only on the measurement of the third ventricle width, in an effort to provide a simple and easy biomarker to help clinicians distinguish between PSP and PD in clinical settings, where complex biomarkers such as MRPI or MRPI 2.0 are not available yet.”

A new study published in Movement Disorders suggests that third ventricle/internal skull diameter ratios (3rd V/ID) allow for the early differentiation of Parkinson disease (PD) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSD) and are sufficiently simple and generalizable to be used in most routine clinical practices and in patient selection for a variety of clinical trials.¹

The researchers had previously identified MRPI 2.0 as a highly accurate biomarker, however, MRPI 2.0 requires many measurements and expertise in taking these measurements and is therefore is more suited to research centers than routine clinical practice.² Following the identification of MRPI 2.0, the team set out to develop a simpler biomarker that could be easily and widely used to diagnose PSP. 

NeurologyLive talked to Andrea Quattrone, MD, resident, neurology department, Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, to learn more about the development of 3rd V/ID ratio to improve accessibility over MRPI 2.0. Quattrone also discussed the team's efforts to create an automatic tool to calculate MRPI 2.0 (they have also developed one for the older, less accurate MRPI 1.0), again aligning with the goal to simplify differentiation of PSP and PD.

REFERENCES

1. Quattrone A, Antonini A, Vaillancourt DE, et. Al. A new MRI measure to early differentiate progressive supranuclear palsy from de Novo Parkin’s Disease in clinical practice: An international study. Movement Disord. Published online November 5, 2020. doi: 10.1002/mds.28364
2. Quattrone A, Morelli M, Vescio B, et al. Refining initial diagnosis of Parkinson's disease after follow-up: A 4 year prospective clinical and magnetic resonance imaging study. Movement Disord. 2019;34(4):487-495. doi: 10.1002/mds.27621.