Brain morphometry: Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

Concerning Parkinson’s disease (PD), the utility of brain morphometry is open to debate. Indeed, standard neuroimaging techniques have had a marginal role in the diagnosis and follow-up of PD patients. The diagnosis of PD is essentially based on clinical data (neurological examination and evaluation of therapeutic response). To explore the contribution of brain morphometry in PD, we discuss changes induced by PD as a three-level system, (1) brainstem (neuronal degeneration), (2) striatum (dopaminergic deafferentation), and (3) cortical (functional deafferentation and neuronal degeneration). High-field MRI associated to advanced MRI techniques opened new perspectives to investigate neurodegenerative lesions associated to PD.