Perfusion and metabolism imaging studies in Parkinson's disease

Positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) are important tools in the evaluation of brain blood flow and glucose metabolism in Parkinson's disease (PD). However, conflicting results are reported in the literature depending on the type of imaging data analysis employed. The present review gives a comprehensive summary of the perfusion and metabolism literature in the field of PD research, including quantitative PET studies, normalized PET and SPECT studies, autoradiography studies in animal models of PD, and simulation studies of PD data. It is concluded that PD most likely is characterized by widespread cortical hypometabolism, probably even at early disease stages. Widespread subcortical hypermetabolism is probably not a feature of PD, although certain small basal ganglia structures, such as the external pallidum, may display true hypermetabolism in the absolute sense. This observation is also in agreement with the animal literature.