The Effect of Pramipexole on Metabolic Network Activity Compared With Levodopa in Early Parkinson's Disease

Levodopa and non-ergot dopaminergic agonists such as pramipexole are both recommended as the first-line symptomatic treatment for early untreated Parkinson\'s disease (PD), previous clinical trial indicated that initial pramipexole owns advantage over levodopa regarding motor complications, on the contrary, less adverse effect like freezing and severe somnolence favors initial treatment of levodopa. Thus, it remains controversial that initiation of which medication will be better for those patients with early PD. Parkinson\'s disease-related spatial covariance patter (PDRP) is a new biomarker which can represent the network activity of brain and severity of PD. Based on the literatures and our previous data, the investigators hypothesize that PDRP will be served as a biomarker to help us evaluate and compare the effect of levodopa or pramipexole on the progression of PD, which might be able to provide further evidence for clinicians to address the above critical issue.