To assess the characteristics of brain glucose metabolism in patients with early Parkinson′s disease (PD) accompanied by visuospatial working memory impairment using ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET imaging.

Between January 2015 and March 2017, early PD patients with visuospatial working memory impairment (14 males, 6 females, age: (55.7±6.7) years), early PD patients without visuospatial working memory impairment (13 males, 7 females, age: (55.7±8.5) years) and healthy controls (14 males, 6 females, age: (54.6±6.4) years) were included. Resting-state ¹⁸F-FDG PET was performed to obtain the brain glucose metabolism. Subsequently, statistical parametric mapping (SPM) was used to compare the brain glucose metabolic changes among different groups.

Compared with the control group, hypermetabolism was observed in putamen, globus pallidus, thalamus, pons, cerebellum and primary motor cortex and hypometabolism was found in part of the occipital and temporal lobe in the groups of early PD (Z_max values: 3.19-6.86, t values: 2.11-9.96, all P<0.001). The PD group with visuospatial working memory impairment had hypometabolism regions in bilateral lateral prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex compared with the group without visuospatial working memory impairment.

Abnormal metabolism of glucose in visual processing channels of brain in early PD patients may be one of the causes of visuospatial working memory impairment.

Parkinson disease; Vision disorders; Memory disorders; Memory, short-term; Positron-emission tomography; Deoxyglucose