Zaiyang Long1,
2, Yue-Ming Jiang3, Xiang-Rong Li4, Jun Xu1,
2, Li-Ling Long4, Wei Zheng1, James B. Murdoch5,
Ulrike Dydak1, 2
1School
of Health Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States; 2Department
of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Indiana University School of Medicine,
Indianapolis, IN, United States; 3Dept. of Occupational Health and
Toxicology, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, China; 4Department
of Radiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University,
Nanning, Guangxi, China; 5Toshiba Medical Research Institute USA,
Mayfair village, OH, United States
Manganese (Mn) overexposure can lead to parkinson-type motor symptoms, for which no treatment exists to date. Nine Mn-exposed smelters and ten controls were recruited and underwent Purdue pegboard test to access manual dexterity and steadiness. A GABA-edited proton spectrum was acquired from the thalamus using the MEGA-PRESS sequence on a 3T Philips Achieva whole-body clinical scanner. We found a significant correlation between the increase in GABA+/total creatine (tCr) and the duration of exposure, and significant inverse correlations between GABA+/tCr and all Purdue pegboard test scores. GABA+ may function as a biomarker of Mn-induced toxic effects, in particular of motor deficits.