Nucl Med Mol Imaging.  2014 Dec;48(4):287-294. 10.1007/s13139-014-0286-0.

The Effect of SSRIs on the Binding of 18F-FP-CIT in Parkinson Patients: A Retrospective Case Control Study

• Seo M
• Oh M
• Cho M
• Chung SJ
• Lee CS
• Kim JS

• KMID: 2313211
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-014-0286-0

Abstract

PURPOSE
18F-FP-CIT [18F-fluorinated N-3-fluoropropyl-2-beta-carboxymethoxy-3-beta-(4-iodophenyl) nortropane] is useful for detecting striatal dopamine transporter (DAT). Since FP-CIT shows relatively high affinities for DAT and serotonin transporter (SERT), its binding can be influenced by selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). We aimed to evaluate the effect of SSRIs on the binding of 18F-FP-CIT.
METHODS
In our 18F-FP-CIT positron emission tomography (PET) data pool, images of 24 drug-naive Parkinson's disease (PD) patients (62.6+/-10.6 years), 111 PD patients taking SSRIs [escitalopram (n=19) and fluvoxamine (n=20)] or clonazepam (n=72), and 10 normal people were reviewed. PET images acquired 3 h after 18F-FP-CIT injection were analyzed by an automated method using a predefined volume of interest (VOI) set of the striatum (ST), occipital cortex (OC), raphe nuclei (RN), and cerebellar cortex (CB). The uptake ratios (URs) of each VOI to the CB were compared among the groups.
RESULTS
The ST/CB URs of all PD groups were significantly lower than that of normal group. When adjusted for drug severity, ST/CB URs were higher in drug-naive group but had no difference among antidepressant groups. Whereas OC/CB URs were not different among groups (p>0.05), RN/CB URs were significantly lower in SSRI groups than in non-SSRI groups (p<0.001) and showed similar results when adjusted for disease severity.
CONCLUSION
PD patients taking SSRIs showed significantly decreased URs in the RN but not the OC. When adjusted for Hoehn and Yar (HY) score, ST URs were not different among antidepressant groups. This result suggests that the OC may be used as a reference region for the quantification of DAT binding in 18F-FP-CIT PET images of PD patients taking SSRIs.

Keyword

Parkinson's disease; Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor; 18F-FP-CIT; PET

MeSH Terms

Case-Control Studies*
Cerebellar Cortex
Clonazepam
Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins
Fluvoxamine
Humans
Parkinson Disease
Positron-Emission Tomography
Raphe Nuclei
Retrospective Studies*
Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins
Serotonin Uptake Inhibitors
Clonazepam
Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins
Fluvoxamine
Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins
Serotonin Uptake Inhibitors