In this study, we employed diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to measure the microstructural alterations in subcortical nuclei across PD patients at different disease stages. Individual diagnostic model was constructed to test the performance of diffusion metrics in identifying PD patients at different stages. We found that PD patients at different stages have progressive microstructural alterations in the main nuclei of widely acknowledged nigral-pallidal and thalamo-cortical pathways. DKI is sensitive to detect microstructural changes in GP and thalamus between early stage PD and moderate-late stage PD patients. The combination of kurtosis and tensor metrics can achieve a good performance in diagnosing PD.
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