Tracy R. Melzer1,2, Richard Watts, 1,3,
Michael R. MacAskill1,2, Ross Keenan4, Ajit
Shankaranarayanan5, David C. Alsop6, Charlotte Graham1,2,
Leslie Livingston1, John C. Dalrymple-Alford, 1,7, Tim
J. Anderson1,2
1Van der Veer Institute for Parkinson's
and Brain Research, Christchurch, New Zealand; 2Medicine,
University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand; 3Physics and
Astronomy, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand; 4Christchurch
Radiology Group, Christchurch, New Zealand; 5GE Healthcare, Menlo
Park, CA, United States; 6Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center,
Boston, MA, United States; 7Pyschology, University of Canterbury,
Christchurch, New Zealand
Pseudo-continuous
ASL was used to investigate cerebral blood flow in 44 Parkinsons disease
(PD) patients and 26 controls.
Principal component analysis produced a set of covariance patterns
which were used to form a perfusion network that successfully distinguished
PD from control. The PD-related
network was characterized by decreased perfusion in PD versus controls in
bilateral posterior parietal-occipital regions, posterior medial cortices,
precentral and bilateral middle frontal gyri, and left caudate. Preserved perfusion occurred in bilateral
globus pallidus. This ASL-derived PD
network provides a marker to objectively gauge disease severity and serves as
a potential method to longitudinally track disease progression.