BACKGROUND: The cardinal motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) include rigidity, bradykinesia, and rest tremor. Rigidity and bradykinesia correlate with contralateral nigrostriatal degeneration and striatal dopamine deficit, but association between striatal dopamine function and rest tremor has remained unclear.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the possible link between dopamine function and rest tremor using Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative dataset, the largest prospective neuroimaging cohort of patients with PD.

METHODS: Clinical, [¹²³I]N-ω-fluoropropyl-2β-carbomethoxy-3β-(4-iodophenyl)nortropane ([¹²³I]FP-CIT) single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and structural magnetic resonance imaging data from 354 early PD patients and 166 healthy controls were included in this study. We employed a novel approach allowing nonlinear registration of individual scans accurately to a standard space and voxelwise analyses of the association between motor symptoms and striatal dopamine transporter (DAT) binding.

RESULTS: Severity of both rigidity and bradykinesia was negatively associated with contralateral striatal DAT binding (P_FWE < 0.05 [FWE, family-wise error corrected]). However, rest tremor amplitude was positively associated with increased ipsilateral DAT binding (P_FWE < 0.05). The association between rest tremor and binding remained the same controlling for Hoehn & Yahr stage, Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) part III score, bradykinesia-rigidity score, or motor phenotype. The association between rest tremor and binding was independent of bradykinesia-rigidity and replicated using 2-year follow-up data (P_FWE < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: In agreement with the existing literature, we did not find a consistent association between rest tremor and contralateral dopamine defect. However, our results demonstrate a link between rest tremor and increased or less decreased ipsilateral DAT binding. Our findings provide novel information about the association between dopaminergic function and parkinsonian rest tremor. © 2024 The Author(s). Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.