A comparative study of FA and T2 *values of the substantia nigra pars compacta for diagnosis of early Parkinson′s disease

Objective:To compare the FA and T2 *values of the substantia nigra pars compacta in early Parkinson′s disease,thus to explore more accurate diagnostic method of early Parkinson′s disease.Methods:20patients with early Parkinson′s disease and 28cases of gender and age-matched normal volunteers were scanned by DTI、ESWAN and T2WI;Using T2WI image for reference,hand-sketched regions of interest in the substantia nigra were determined and FA and T2 *values of each region of interest were measured.Results:There was statistical significant difference between FA values of the rostral,middle and caudal region of substantia nigra pars compacta in early PD and FA values of those of normal control group after refining(P0.05).There was statistical significant difference between T2 *values of the rostral,middle and caudal region of substantia nigra pars compacta between T2 *values of those of normal control group after refining(P0.05). There was statistical significant difference between FA values of medial and lateral region of substantia nigra pars compacta in early PD and FA values of those in control group(P0.05),while there was no statistical significant difference of T2 * values between above mentioned groups(P0.05).There were no statistical significant difference of FA values and T2 * values between medial and lateral region of substantia nigra pars compacta in early PD(P0.05).Conclusion:FA value is more accurate than T2 *value for the diagnosis of early Parkinson′s disease.