Cerebral perfusion in Parkinson's disease with depression: an arterial spin-labeling magnetic resonance imaging study

Arterial spin labeling-magnetic resonance imaging (ASL-MRI) combined with inline T1-weighted-based brain morphometry was used to evaluate regional cerebral blood flow in this study, which explored alteration of cerebral perfusion in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients with depression and investigated its underlying neural mechanism. The results showed decreased cerebral perfusion in several brain regions in PD patients compared to healthy controls and a correlation between decreased cerebral perfusion of the right occipital white matter and right cingulate gyrus in PD patients with depression. This finding suggested that hypoperfusion of the limbic system is involved in the pathogenesis of PD with depression.