The nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathway in Wilson's disease studied with positron emission tomography.
case_report · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 1901347.
- Also identified by PMC identifier 1014291.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
Movement disorders, including Parkinsonism, are prominent features of neurological Wilson's disease (WD). This suggests there may be dysfunction of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathway. To explore this possibility, five patients were studied using positron emission tomography (PET) with 18F-6-fluorodopa (6FD), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We calculated striatal 6FD uptake rate constants by a graphical method and compared the results with those of 18 normal subjects. It was found that four patients with symptoms all had abnormally low 6FD uptake, and the one asymptomatic patient had normal uptake. PET evidence for nigrostriatal dopaminergic dysfunction was present even after many years of penicillamine treatment. It is concluded that the nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathway is involved in neurological WD.
Medical subject headings
- Corpus Striatum
- Dopamine
- Hepatolenticular Degeneration
- Receptors, Dopamine
- Substantia Nigra
- Tomography, Emission-Computed