Table 4.
Brain iron, neurometabolites, and other potential predictors of fine motor skills determined by a mixed model in 35 Parkinson patients and 35 controls.
| Tapping Hits | Tremor Amplitude (mm) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exp(β) | 95% CI | Exp(β) | 95% CI | |||
| Study groups (N = 70) | ||||||
| Intercept | 227.30 | 190.62 | 271.04 | 0.54 | 0.30 | 1.00 |
| Akinetic-rigid PD vs. controls | 0.91 | 0.85 | 0.97 | 1.06 | 0.87 | 1.30 |
| Mixed PD vs. controls | 0.87 | 0.81 | 0.93 | 1.32 | 1.08 | 1.62 |
| High education vs. lower levels | 1.05 | 1.00 | 1.10 | 0.95 | 0.80 | 1.12 |
| Age [per 10 years] | 0.98 | 0.96 | 1.01 | 1.06 | 0.96 | 1.18 |
| Non-dominant hand | 0.90 | 0.86 | 0.95 | 1.18 | 1.12 | 1.25 |
| More affected side | 0.92 | 0.86 | 0.99 | 1.11 | 1.02 | 1.22 |
| Brain iron (N = 35 PD patients) | ||||||
| R2* [log 1/s] | 0.96 | 0.84 | 1.10 | 0.87 | 0.70 | 1.08 |
| Globus pallidus vs. substantia nigra | 0.99 | 0.94 | 1.06 | 0.98 | 0.92 | 1.04 |
| Neurometabolites (N = 35 PD patients) | ||||||
| GABA | 1.01 | 0.85 | 1.22 | 1.03 | 0.84 | 1.25 |
| Striatum vs. thalamus | 0.99 | 0.91 | 1.07 | 0.97 | 0.89 | 1.05 |
| Glutamate and glutamine | 0.89 | 0.75 | 1.07 | 1.22 | 1.02 | 1.47 |
| Striatum vs. thalamus | 1.02 | 0.94 | 1.12 | 0.93 | 0.85 | 1.01 |
| Myo-inositol | 1.27 | 1.06 | 1.53 | 1.09 | 0.87 | 1.36 |
| Striatum vs. thalamus | 1.02 | 0.95 | 1.10 | 0.97 | 0.90 | 1.05 |
| Total creatine | 1.01 | 0.69 | 1.49 | 1.16 | 0.73 | 1.84 |
| Striatum vs. thalamus | 1.00 | 0.92 | 1.08 | 0.96 | 0.88 | 1.04 |
Abbreviations: PD: Parkinson’s disease, R: relaxation rate, GABA: γ-aminobutyric acid, exp(β): estimate of the regression coefficients (as factor of change per unit) of potential predictors of motor dysfunction in all subjects and for neuroimaging data in PD patients in separate models for each influencing factor adjusted for CSF content of the voxel (neurometabolites only), age (per 10 years), education (high, lower educational levels), hand (dominant, non-dominant hand), and affected side (more, less affected or no preference), CI: confidence interval (significant effects marked in bold and marginal effects marked in italic).