Chapter 1 - Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods in Parkinson's disease

Summary

This chapter provides an overview of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods. The focus on iron in Parkinson's disease (PD) imaging has remained an important topic and researchers have often utilized T2*, or its reciprocal R2*, in nigral imaging protocols. Some iron-sensitive methods have been recently developed. These include adiabatic T2ρ, magnetization transfer (MT) imaging, and susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI). The authors have developed a novel rotating frame relaxation experiment called relaxation along a fictitious field (RAFF). There has been greater refinement with the utilization of methods that do not employ a-priori regions of interest (ROIs). One such method is voxel-based morphometry (VBM), in which there is standardization of data and then voxel-by-voxel comparison between group data to determine if there are differences in signal intensity. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) provides structural data based on the directionally restrained diffusion of water within fiber tracts.