Nigrosome-1, a subregion of substantia nigra (SN), and neuromelanin have been identified as good biomarkers of Parkinson's disease (PD) pathology. We investigated the diagnostic accuracy of quantitative iron-neuromelanin parameters and compared these against visual analysis of nigrosome-1 and neuromelanin hyperintensity as proxies of nigral dopaminergic neurodegeneration. Susceptibility map-weighted imaging surpassed neuromelanin sensitive MRI in blinded visual PD classification; reader expertise affected performance. Composite quantitative iron-neuromelanin marker matched diagnostic accuracy of expert reader in visual evaluation of nigrosome-1 using susceptibility map-weighted imaging, potentially improving diagnostic confidence in non-experts. Quantitative susceptibility mapping showed moderate negative correlation with motor dysfunction in PD patients.
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Hartono et al. (2024) studied this question.
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