Abstract Background The nigrosome‐1 (N1) sign on susceptibility‐weighted imaging (SWI) typically disappears in Parkinson's disease (PD), though some patients can show uni−/bilaterally preserved N1. Objective Investigating whether visible nigrosomes in PD patients differ from those of healthy subjects (HC). Methods Forty‐eight PD and 35 HC underwent 3 T‐MR‐SWI. The N1 was visually assessed, and visible N1 were segmented to calculate volume, area and susceptibility values. These metrics were investigated for distinguishing between visible nigrosomes‐1 of PD patients and HC. Results Among PD patients, 16 had bilateral N1 loss and 32 had unilaterally ( n = 27) or bilaterally ( n = 5) preserved N1. The visible N1 were significantly smaller in PD than in HC ( P < 0.001), while having similar susceptibility values ( P = 0.251). N1 area and volume showed high performance (AUC: 0.97–0.98) in distinguishing PD from HC. Conclusion The measurement of volume and area of N1 region may complement visual assessment on SWI to optimize diagnostic performance in PD.
Caligiuri et al. (Tue,) studied this question.
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