Figure 2.

Nigrostriatal dopaminergic system degeneration in Parkinson’s disease. PET images show striatal uptake of [¹⁸F]FPCIT, a ligand with high affinity for pre-synaptic dopamine transporters, for a normal volunteer (top row), and 2 patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) [middle row: Hoehn and Yahr (H and Y) stage I; bottom row: H and Y stage III]. Striatal [¹⁸F]FPCIT uptake is mainly reduced in the putamen contralateral to the most symptomatic side in early PD (middle row), progressing to bilateral reduction in a caudal-to-rostral pattern (bottom row). (Originally published in the JNM. Katzumata K, Dhawan V, Chaly T, et al. Dopamine transporter imaging with fluorine-18-FPCIT and PET. J Nucl Med 1998; 39: 1521-1530. © by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Inc.)