Increased iron-deposition in lateral-ventral substantia nigra pars compacta: A promising neuroimaging marker for Parkinson's disease.

ABSTRACT:

Background

To date there are no validated MRI biomarkers to assist diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD). Our aim was to investigate PD related iron changes in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) as defined by neuromelanin-sensitive MR contrast.

Methods

Thirty-nine PD participants and 33 healthy controls were scanned at 3.0-T using a 16-echo gradient echo sequence to create R₂* maps for the evaluation of iron content to find the overlap with a neuromelanin based SNpc mask. The SNpc overlap percentage with the R₂* map, and the R₂* values in both the whole SNpc and the overlap volume were compared between PD and control groups, and correlated with clinical features for PD participants. Finally, the diagnostic performance of the SNpc overl

SUBMITTER: He N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7479276 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature