Jian-Li Wang1,
Xiaoyu Sun1, Zachary Mosher1, Jonathan Chu1,
Megha Patel1, Sarah Ryan1, Jeffrey Vesek1,
Qing X. Yang1, 2, Sangam Kanekar1,
Thyagaragian Subramanian3
1Radiology,
Penn State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, United States; 2Neurosurgery,
Penn State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, United States; 3Neurology,
Penn State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, United States
Parkinsons disease is always asymmetric in onset and this asymmetry can last for a few years before the motor symptoms appear on the other side of body. The underlying mechanism for this asymmetry is not clear. In this study, we used quantitative evaluation of transverse relaxation parameters to detect this asymmetry. Our results support our hypotheses that in the early stage of PD the pathological developments are different in the hemispheres corresponding to the clinically affected side and the clinically unaffected side, and this difference can be detected by transverse relaxation parametric mapping.