Loss of Dorsolateral Nigral Hyperintensity on 3.0 Tesla Susceptibility-Weighted Imaging in Idiopathic Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder

Very interesting... I feel strongly that MRI will give us appropriate markers for PD and related disorders with time...

Ann Neurol. 2016 Mar 26. doi: 10.1002/ana.24646. [Epub ahead of print]

De Marzi R, Seppi K, Högl B, Müller C, Scherfler C, Stefani A, Iranzo A, Tolosa E, Santamarìa J, Gizewski E, Schocke M, Skalla E, Kremser C, Poewe W.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ana.24646/abstract

We assessed loss of dorsolateral nigral hyperintensity (DNH) on high-field susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI), a novel MRI marker for Parkinson's Disease (PD), in 15 subjects with idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder (iRBD) and compared findings to 42 healthy controls (HC) and 104 PD patients. We found loss of DNH in at least two thirds of iRBD subjects, which approaches the rate seen in PD and is in contrast to findings in HC. We propose that absence of DNH on high-field SWI could identify prodromal degenerative parkinsonism in iRBD.