[F]FE-PE2I DAT correlates with Parkinson's disease duration, stage, and rigidity/bradykinesia scores: a PET radioligand validation study.

Background: Correlations between dopamine transporter (DAT) availability and Parkinson's disease (PD) motor symptoms vary depending on the imaging modality, choice of regions of interest and clinical measures. We aimed to validate the PET radioligand [F]FE-PE2I as a clinical biomarker in PD, hypothesizing negative correlations between DAT availability in specified nigrostriatal regions with symptom duration, disease stage and motor symptom scores.

Methods: We included 41 PD patients (age 45-79 years; H&Y stage < 3) and 37 healthy control subjects in a cross-sectional study with dynamic [F]FE-PE2I PET.

Reliability of dopamine transporter PET measurements with [F]FE-PE2I in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Background: Reliable quantification of dopamine transporter (DAT), a biomarker for Parkinson's disease (PD), is essential for diagnostic purposes as well as for evaluation of potential disease-modifying treatment. Due to degeneration of dopaminergic neurons and thus lower expected radioligand binding to DAT, higher measurement variability in PD patients might be expected than earlier reproducibility results in healthy controls. Therefore, we aimed to examine the test-retest properties of [F]FE-PE2I-PET in PD patients.