[Transcranial sonography in diagnosis of movement disorders]

Conventional methods of neuroimaging, such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, are mostly useful in exclusion of movement disorders with secondary aetiology. Recently, the application of transcranial sonography has been introduced to the diagnosis of extrapyramidal diseases. This valuable technique, with proven usefulness in the field of cerebrovascular events, may reveal some brain parenchymal structures. In this review the most important findings of ultrasonographic abnormalities in the brain, particularly hyperechogenicity of substantia nigra in Parkinson disease, are presented.