Anterior cingulate dopamine turnover and behavior change in Parkinson’s disease (original) (raw)

Subtle cognitive and behavioral changes are common in early Parkinson's disease. The cause of these symptoms is probably multifactorial but may in part be related to extra-striatal dopamine levels. 6-[ 18 F]-Fluoro-L-dopa (FDOPA) positron emission tomography has been widely used to quantify dopamine metabolism in the brain; the most frequently measured kinetic parameter is the tissue uptake rate constant, K i . However, estimates of dopamine turnover, which also account for the small rate of FDOPA loss from areas of specific trapping, may be more sensitive than K i for early disease-related changes in dopamine biosynthesis. The purpose of the present study was to compare effective distribution volume ratio (eDVR), a metric for dopamine turnover, to cognitive and behavioral measures in Parkinson's patients.