Troubles neurologiques

FMT-PET for the Early Diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

Sayaka Ono, Yuko Nara, Toshihiko Sato and Shin-ichi Muramatsu

A 56-year-old woman complained of a three-month history of progressive clumsiness in her left hand. She reported fine hand movements to have become slow and uncoordinated, thus leading to moderate difficulty in dressing and working as a beautician. A neurological examination revealed rigidity in her left limb. No obvious tremors were noted. She was treated with L-dopa (300 mg/day), which provided substantial symptomatic benefits. MRI showed the putamen to have a normal morphology and size, and no areas of any altered signals were observed in the brain parenchyma (Figure 1A). Positron emission tomography (PET) with an aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) tracer, 6-[18F] fluoro-L-m-tyrosine (FMT) showed a reduced uptake in the posterior part of the right putamen.