Additive value of [18F]PI-2620 perfusion imaging in progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal syndrome

Purpose Early after [ 18 F]PI-2620 PET tracer administration, perfusion imaging has potential for regional assessment of neuronal injury in neurodegenerative diseases. This is while standard late-phase [ 18 F]PI-2620 tau-PET is able to discriminate the 4-repeat tauopathies progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal syndrome (4RTs) from disease controls and healthy controls. Here, we investigated whether early-phase [ 18 F]PI-2620 PET has an additive value for biomarker based evaluation of 4RTs. Methods Seventy-eight patients with 4RTs (71 ± 7 years, 39 female), 79 patients with other neurodegenerative diseases (67 ± 12 years, 35 female) and twelve age-matched controls (69 ± 8 years, 8 female) underwent dynamic (0–60 min) [ 18 F]PI-2620 PET imaging. Regional perfusion (0.5–2.5 min p.i.) and tau load (20–40 min p.i.) were measured in 246 predefined brain regions [standardized-uptake-value ratios (SUVr), cerebellar reference]. Regional SUVr were compared between 4RTs and controls by an ANOVA including false-discovery-rate (FDR, p