Comparison of vagus nerve cross-sectional area between brain-first and body-first Parkinson’s disease

作者：Shuangshuang Dong, Bo Shen, Xu Jiang, Jun Zhu, Hai‐Ying Zhang, Yang Zhao, Yaning Chen, Dongfeng Li, Yuanyuan Feng, Yi Chen, Yang Pan, Feng Han, Ben Liu, Li Zhang · 发表于：npj Parkinson s Disease · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1038/s41531-024-00844-6 · 被引用次数：15 · 研究领域：Parkinson's Disease Mechanisms and Treatments、Neurological disorders and treatments、Dysphagia Assessment and Management

The vagus nerve (VN) is the main neural pathway linking the gut and brain in Parkinson's disease (PD). In this study, we utilized high-resolution ultrasound to measure the VN cross-sectional area (CSA) in 96 healthy controls (HCs) and 75 PD patients. The PD group was further categorized into three subgroups: PD-preRBD, PD-postRBD, and PD-nonRBD. PD-preRBD was the body-first subtype, and PD-postRBD and PD-nonRBD were the brain-first subtype. The PD group had a significantly lower VN CSA than HCs. Subgroup analysis revealed that the PD-preRBD group tended to exhibit a smaller VN CSA than both the PD-postRBD and PD-nonRBD groups. The VN CSA, specifically the right VN, was significantly correlated with the body-first subtype and some components of PD-related assessment scales. Overall, these findings provide evidence of VN atrophy in PD, especially in body-first PD, suggesting that VN ultrasound could serve as an adjunctive diagnostic tool.