Neuroimaging in Parkinsonian Disorders

Madhavi Tripathi, Atin Kumar, Chandrasekhar BalNeurology India 2018 66(7):68-78 Neuroimaging (NI) in Parkinson's disease (PD) includes functional techniques like positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and morphological imaging using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and transcranial sonography to probe different aspects of the neurobiology of PD. Changes in neurotransmitters in various regions of the brain and their influence on brain networks is the basis for the motor symptoms of PD which are interrogated by NI. The recent Movement Disorders Society Clinical Diagnostic Criteria for PD (MDS-PD) have included the results of a few of these neuroimaging techniques to serve as single supportive criteria or absolute exclusion criteria for the diagnosis of PD. While dopaminergic imaging is useful in the early stages of disease to differentiate the neurodegenerative versus non-degenerative causes of parkinsonism like essential tremors, it has also been used for the differential diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) from Alzheimer's disease (AD), for inclusion of PD patients into clinical trials and for evaluating response to cell–replacement therapies in PD. Metabolic patterns on F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography have been used effectively for the classification and differential diagnosis of the parkinsonian syndromes using visual and quantitative approaches. Disease rel...
Source: Neurology India - Category: Neurology Authors: Source Type: research