Neuroimaging: current role in detecting pre-motor Parkinson's disease.

ABSTRACT

Convergent evidence suggests a pre-motor period in Parkinson's disease (PD) during which typical motor symptoms have not yet developed although dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra have started to degenerate. Advances in different neuroimaging techniques have allowed the detection of functional and structural changes in early PD. This review summarizes the state of the art knowledge concerning structural neuroimaging techniques including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and transcranial B-mode-Doppler-sonography (TCS) as well as functional neuroimaging techniques using radiotracer imaging (RTI) with different radioligands in detecting pre-motor PD.