Publications

@article{Dzialas2025,

title = {Dopamine Transporter Imaging as Objective Monitoring Biomarker in Parkinson's Disease},

author = {Verena Dzialas and Gérard N. Bischof and Kathrin Möllenhoff and Alexander Drzezga and Thilo van Eimeren},

doi = {10.1002/ana.27223},

issn = {1531-8249},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-03-27},

urldate = {2025-03-27},

journal = {Annals of Neurology},

publisher = {Wiley},

abstract = {<jats:sec><jats:title>Objective</jats:title><jats:p>Although dopamine transporter (DaT) imaging is a valuable diagnostic biomarker, few studies have investigated its utility in objectively monitoring disease progression in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). To date, no study has established a longitudinal relationship between the DaT signal decline and the motor symptom increase, potentially due to neglected factors such as brain regions, disease laterality, and symptom subtypes, which this study addresses.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>This cohort study included participants who met the Movement Disorder Society (MDS) criteria for PD, with longitudinal imaging and clinical data from the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative Database. Linear mixed model analyses were used to investigate the relationship between the DaT signal decline and the motor symptom severity increase over time. We hypothesized that a decline in putaminal DaT availability in the less affected hemisphere would be associated with increasing contralateral motor symptoms, measured by the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). Additional models explored the effects of different brain regions (caudate and putamen), symptom categories (MDS UPDRSIII score with and without tremor items), and disease onset laterality (left or right hemisphere).</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>We included 719 participants (443 male patients and 276 female patients; mean age = 62.2 ± 9.5 years) with 1,981 available data points. As hypothesized, we observed a significant association between the decrease in the less affected putaminal DaT signal and motor symptom increase in the contralateral body side, independent of including or excluding tremor scores.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Interpretation</jats:title><jats:p>Our findings support the use of repetitive DaT imaging for objectively monitoring PD progression. This could facilitate personalized disease tracking, subtyping, and intervention testing in the future. ANN NEUROL 2025</jats:p></jats:sec>},

keywords = {Biomarker, DaT imaging, Parkinson, SPECT},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Doering2025,

title = {“Fill States”: PET-derived Markers of the Spatial Extent of Alzheimer Disease Pathology},

author = {Elena Doering and Merle C. Hoenig and Kathrin Giehl and Verena Dzialas and Grégory Andrassy and Abdelmajid Bader and Andreas Bauer and David Elmenhorst and Johannes Ermert and Silke Frensch and Elena Jäger and Frank Jessen and Philipp Krapf and Tina Kroll and Christoph Lerche and Julia Lothmann and Andreas Matusch and Bernd Neumaier and Oezguer A. Onur and Alfredo Ramirez and Nils Richter and Frederik Sand and Lutz Tellmann and Hendrik Theis and Philip Zeyen and Thilo van Eimeren and Alexander Drzezga and Gérard N. Bischof},

doi = {10.1148/radiol.241482},

issn = {1527-1315},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-03-01},

urldate = {2025-03-01},

journal = {Radiology},

volume = {314},

number = {3},

publisher = {Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)},

abstract = {<jats:p> The spatial extent of amyloid, tau, and neurodegeneration, derived from PET imaging, has higher diagnostic performance for cognitive impairment severity compared with standardized uptake value ratios. </jats:p>},

keywords = {Alzheimer, Amyloid PET, Biomarker, FDG PET, Spatial extent, Tau PET},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Bauer2025,

title = {Pragmatic algorithm for visual assessment of 4-Repeat tauopathies in [18F]PI-2620 PET Scans},

author = {Theresa Bauer and Matthias Brendel and Mirlind Zaganjori and Alexander M. Bernhardt and Alexander Jäck and Sophia Stöcklein and Maximilian Scheifele and Johannes Levin and Thilo van Eimeren and Alexander Drzezga and Osama Sabri and Henryk Barthel and Robert Perneczky and Günter Höglinger and Nicolai Franzmeier and Johannes Gnörich},

doi = {10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121001},

issn = {1053-8119},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-02-00},

urldate = {2025-02-00},

journal = {NeuroImage},

volume = {306},

publisher = {Elsevier BV},

keywords = {Biomarker, Tau PET, Tauopathy},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Theis2024b,

title = {Imaging Biomarkers in Prodromal and Earliest Phases of Parkinson’s Disease},

author = {Hendrik Theis and Nicola Pavese and Irena Rektorová and Thilo van Eimeren},

doi = {10.3233/jpd-230385},

issn = {1877-718X},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-10-01},

urldate = {2024-10-01},

journal = {Journal of Parkinson’s Disease},

volume = {14},

number = {s2},

pages = {S353--S365},

publisher = {SAGE Publications},

abstract = {<jats:p> Assessing imaging biomarker in the prodromal and early phases of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is of great importance to ensure an early and safe diagnosis. In the last decades, imaging modalities advanced and are now able to assess many different aspects of neurodegeneration in PD. MRI sequences can measure iron content or neuromelanin. Apart from SPECT imaging with Ioflupane, more specific PET tracers to assess degeneration of the dopaminergic system are available. Furthermore, metabolic PET patterns can be used to anticipate a phenoconversion from prodromal PD to manifest PD. In this regard, it is worth mentioning that PET imaging of inflammation will gain significance. Molecular imaging of neurotransmitters like serotonin, noradrenaline and acetylcholine shed more light on non-motor symptoms. Outside of the brain, molecular imaging of the heart and gut is used to measure PD-related degeneration of the autonomous nervous system. Moreover, optical coherence tomography can noninvasively detect degeneration of retinal fibers as a potential biomarker in PD. In this review, we describe these state-of-the-art imaging modalities in early and prodromal PD and point out in how far these techniques can and will be used in the future to pave the way towards a biomarker-based staging of PD. </jats:p>},

keywords = {Biomarker, Parkinson},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}