Increased anteroventral striatal dopamine transporter and motor recovery after subthalamic deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease.

Objective: Subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) in Parkinson's disease is effective; however, its mechanism is unclear. To investigate the degree of neuronal terminal survival after STN-DBS, the authors examined the striatal dopamine transporter levels before and after treatment in association with clinical improvement using PET with [11C]2β-carbomethoxy-3β-(4-fluorophenyl)tropane ([11C]CFT).

Methods: Ten patients with Parkinson's disease who had undergone bilateral STN-DBS were scanned twice with [11C]CFT PET just before and 1 year after surgery.