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Molecular imaging in hereditary forms of parkinsonism
Author(s) -
Shih M. C.,
Felicio A. C.,
De Oliveira GodeiroJunior C.,
De Carvalho Aguiar P.,
De Andrade L. A. F.,
Ferraz H. B.,
Bressan R. A.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
european journal of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.881
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1468-1331
pISSN - 1351-5101
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-1331.2007.01691.x
Subject(s) - parkinsonism , neuroimaging , neuroscience , medicine , positron emission tomography , parkinson's disease , phenotype , disease , dopamine , single photon emission computed tomography , pathology , bioinformatics , gene , genetics , biology
The development of in vivo molecular imaging to evaluate the dopamine (DA) system with positron‐emission tomography and single photon emission computed tomography has been of key importance on monitoring in vivo nigrostriatal neuronal loss in Parkinson's disease (PD), mostly through assessments of pre‐ and post‐synaptic DA receptors. The discoveries of genes related to hereditary forms of parkinsonism ( PARK1 , PARK2 , PARK6 , PARK7 and PARK8 ) have increased our understanding either of distinct subtypes of clinical expression in PD or its etiology. This article revises current data on molecular neuroimaging of genetic forms of parkinsonism comparing and contrasting its main features with the classical sporadic forms. Awareness of the spectrum variance in the genotype and its respective PD phenotype are useful to distinguish different pathophysiological mechanisms of PD.