Jung-Hoon Lee1,2, Sang-Young Kim1,
Kyung-Bae Lee1,2, Do-Wan Lee1, Youn-Bong Choi2,
Bo-Young Choe1
1Department of Biomedical
Engineering, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea, Republic of; 2Department
of Radiology, Kyunghee University Medical Center, Seoul, Korea, Republic of
The purpose of this study was to determine if changes in fractional anisotropy (FA) and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of Broca's and Wernicke's areas could be observed in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). The FA values in Broca's and Wernicke's areas of patients with PD were significantly decreased compared to controls. In addition, fiber-tractography helped to visualize the connection of nerve fibers in language areas of the left hemisphere. These results suggest that neurodegenerative changes occur in the language areas of patients with PD.