Table 7.

CEST/APT and DTI parameters values in the putamen for normal controls and PD patients at different stages.

		Normal (n = 23)	Early-stage PD (n = 12)	Advanced-stage PD (n = 11)	Tests of homogeneity of variances P values	ANOVA			Multiple comparisons P values (95% confidence interval)
						df	F	P values
CEST/APT	MTRasym(3.5 ppm)	0.83 ± 0.13	1.12 ± 0.12	0.99 ± 0.20	0.279	2	4.142	0.019	0.016 (−0.54, −0.05), 0.500 (−0.15, 0.43), 0.314 (−0.41, 0.10)
	${\text{MTR}}_{\text{asym}}^{\text{total}}$	2.68 ± 0.25	3.10 ± 0.46	2.92 ± 0.55	0.038	2	1.427	0.245	0.237 (−1.05, 0.20), 0.849 (−0.65, 1.03), 0.702 (−0.95, 0.48)
DTI	FA	0.14 ± 0.01	0.14 ± 0.02	0.14 ± 0.01	0.260	2	0.250	0.779	0.766 (−0.02, 0.01), 0.954 (−0.02, 0.02), 0.937 (−0.02, 0.02)
	MD	0.72 ± 0.01	0.72 ± 0.02	0.74 ± 0.02	0.505	2	2.046	0.135	0.889 (−0.03, 0.02), 0.360 (−0.05, 0.01), 0.116 (−0.05, 0.01)

MTR_asym(3.5 ppm) was quantified by % water signal intensity. ${\mathit{\text{MTR}}}_{\mathit{\text{asym}}}^{\mathit{\text{total}}}$ was defined as the integral of the MTR_asym spectrum in the range of 0–4 ppm. FA, fractional anisotropy; MD, mean diffusivity. Three P values in multiple comparisons corresponded to the results between normal controls and early-stage PD patients, between early-stage and advanced-stage PD patients, as well as between normal controls and advanced-stage PD patients, respectively. Bold indicates significant change.