Andrea Quattrone, MD: The Importance of Early Differentiation Between PSP and Parkinson

“Our new biomarker can impact clinical care of parkinsonian patients and PSP patients, leading to a more accurate diagnosis in the early stage of the disease. This marker may also reduce the need for expensive or invasive diagnostic examinations, such as cerebral spinal fluid examination or pet imaging.”

A new study published in Movement Disorders suggests that third ventricle/internal skull diameter ratios (3rd V/ID) not only allow for the early differentiation of Parkinson disease (PD) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSD), but also appear to be simple enough and generalizable for the majority of routine clinical practices as well as 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 reached out to study author Andrea Quattrone, MD, resident, neurology department, Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, to learn more about the importance of early differentiation between PSP and PD. Quattrone hopes to spread the word about the demonstrated validity and generalizability of the new biomarker in order to get it to be used in clinical settings. He also noted that he’d like to investigate biomarkers that can track disease progression of PSP and differentiate between different phenotypes of PSP.

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.