Dement Neurocogn Disord.  2016 Jun;15(2):43-48. 10.12779/dnd.2016.15.2.43.

Long-Term Efficacy of Memantine in Parkinson' Disease Dementia: An 18-Month Prospective Perfusion Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography Preliminary Study

• Jeong HS
• Chung YA
• Park JS
• Song IU
• Yang Y

• KMID: 2442854
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.12779/dnd.2016.15.2.43

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Although the treatment efficacy of memantine in Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD) has been reported after several weeks of administration, the long-term effects on brain perfusion and clinical symptoms remain unclear. The current study aimed to follow-up PDD patients after 18 months of memantine treatment using (99m)Tc hexamethylpropylene amine oxime single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT).
METHODS
A total of 15 patients with PDD and 11 healthy participants were recruited into this study and they were assessed with brain SPECT, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), Global Deterioration Scale (GDS), and Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI). Differences in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) between the two groups were evaluated at baseline. After 18 months of memantine administration, changes in brain perfusion, severity of dementia, cognition, and neuropsychiatric disturbances were examined in the patients with PDD.
RESULTS
The PDD group showed hypoperfusion in most of the cortical, subcortical, and cerebellar areas compared to healthy controls at baseline. At the follow-up, changes in rCBF, CDR (p=0.32), sum of box of CDR (p=0.49), MMSE (p=0.61), GDS (p=0.79), and NPI (p=0.23) were not significant in the PDD patients.
CONCLUSIONS
Our findings implicate that memantine may delay the progression of brain perfusion deficits and clinical symptoms of PDD in the long term.

Keyword

Parkinson's disease dementia; memantine; single photon emission computed tomography; brain perfusion; cognitive function

MeSH Terms

Brain
Cerebrovascular Circulation
Cognition
Dementia*
Follow-Up Studies
Healthy Volunteers
Humans
Memantine*
Parkinson Disease
Perfusion*
Prospective Studies*
Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon*
Treatment Outcome
Memantine

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Decreases in rCBF in the PDD group compared with the control group at baseline. Images are shown in neurological convention and color bar represents voxel-level t-values. PDD: Parkinson's disease dementia, rCBF: regional cerebral blood flow.

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