Several studies have reported that diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is able to help discriminate a Parkinson variant of multiple system atrophy (MSA-p) from Parkinson’s disease (PD) on the basis of the increased regional apparent diffusion coefficient (rADC). We analyzed the usefulness of DWI by using the rADC for differential diagnosis between MSA-p and PD and investigated the correlation between the rADC value and clinical features of MSA-p and PD.
Twelve patients with PD and 10 with MSA-p were studied. The rADC value was determined in different brain regions, including the dorsal putamen (DP) and middle cerebellar peduncles (MCP).
The rADC values of the DP showed a greater increase in MSA-p patients than in PD patients (
DWI discriminated between PD and MSA-p based on rADC values in DP and MCP. The MCP rADC value, in particular, could better discriminate MSA-p from PD.
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