Striatal subregional 6-[18F]fluoro-L-dopa uptake in early Parkinson's disease: A two-year follow-up study

• Published in: Movement disorders 2006-07, Vol.21 (7), p.958-963
• Main Authors: Brück, Anna, Aalto, Sargo, Nurmi, Elina, Vahlberg, Tero, Bergman, Jörgen, Rinne, Juha O.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: [18F]fluorodopa; Aged; Biological and medical sciences; Corpus Striatum - diagnostic imaging; Degenerative and inherited degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Leukodystrophies. Prion diseases; Dihydroxyphenylalanine - analogs & derivatives; Dihydroxyphenylalanine - pharmacokinetics; Disease Progression; Dominance, Cerebral - physiology; Female; Fluorine Radioisotopes - pharmacokinetics; Headache. Facial pains. Syncopes. Epilepsia. Intracranial hypertension. Brain oedema. Cerebral palsy; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes); Neurology; Parkinson Disease - diagnostic imaging; Parkinson's disease; Positron-Emission Tomography; progression; Putamen - diagnostic imaging; Reference Values
• ISSN: 0885-3185; 1531-8257
• DOI: 10.1002/mds.20855

Thirty‐one drug‐naive patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) underwent 6‐[18F]fluoro‐L‐dopa (F‐dopa) positron emission tomography (PET) scan at the time of the diagnosis (baseline) and 2 years later in order to investigate F‐dopa uptake in striatal and extrastriatal regions during the first years of early PD. Twenty‐four healthy controls underwent one F‐dopa PET scan. The regional differences in the striatal and extrastriatal regions were analyzed with statistical parametric mapping and automated region of interest analyses. Our study shows that the F‐dopa uptake in unmedicated early PD is most severely decreased in the dorsal part of caudal putamen but significant decrease can be seen throughout the striatum compared with controls. During the first years of PD, there is a progressive regional decline in striatal F‐dopa uptake, the dorsal part of caudal putamen being still the most severely affected region. The absolute decline is equal between the striatal subregions. This suggests that the decline of dopamine function starts from the dorsocaudal putamen, but once started, the rate of progression is equal between the subregions of the striatum. In contrast to the striatal decline, the increased cortical F‐dopa uptake prevails at least during the first years of PD. © 2006 Movement Disorder Society