BACKGROUND The anatomy of the substantia nigra on conventional MRI is controversial. Even using histological techniques it is difficult to delineate with certainty from surrounding structures. We sought to define the anatomy of the SN using high field spin-echo MRI of pathological material in which we could study the anatomy in detail to corroborate our MRI findings in controls and Parkinson's ...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder in which the major pathologic substrate is a loss of dopaminergic neurons from the substantia nigra. Our main objective was to determine the correspondence between changes in the substantia nigra, evident in neuromelanin and iron sensitive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and dopaminergic striatal innervation loss in patients...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Increased echogenicity of the substantia nigra is a typical transcranial sonography finding in Parkinson disease. Experimental software for digital analysis of the echogenic substantia nigra area has been developed. The aim of this study was to compare the evaluation of substantia nigra echogenicity by using digital analysis with a manual measurement in patients with Park...

introduction: nigrothalamocortical tract is one of the main outputs of the basal nuclei, but its role in motor disturbances is vauge, because there is little informations on its connection structure. some electrophysiological and pharmacological surveys report that none-dopaminergic outputs originate from reticular part of substantia nigra and end at thalamus. in this study the topographical co...

Use of illicit stimulants such as methamphetamine, cocaine, and ecstasy is an increasing health problem. Chronic use can cause neurotoxicity in animals and humans but the long-term consequences are not well understood. The aim of the current study was to investigate the long-term effect of stimulant use on the morphology of the human substantia nigra. We hypothesised that history of illicit sti...

Figure 1: Pathway of Parkinson’s disease characterised by the degeneration of dopaminergic cells in the substantia nigra pars compacta. Above is a flow-chart describing the pathway of Parkinson’s disease characterised by the degeneration of dopaminergic cells in the substantia nigra pars compacta located in the basal ganglia [1]. The SNc (Substantia Nigra Pars Compacta) is what that is affected...

There is a clear need to develop non-invasive markers of substantia nigra progression in Parkinson's disease. We previously found elevated free-water levels in the substantia nigra for patients with Parkinson's disease compared with controls in single-site and multi-site cohorts. Here, we test the hypotheses that free-water levels in the substantia nigra of Parkinson's disease increase followin...

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of the substantia nigra has shown promise in detecting and quantifying neurodegeneration in Parkinson disease (PD). It remains unknown, however, whether differences in microstructural changes within the basal ganglia underlie PD motor subtypes. We investigated microstructural changes within the basal ganglia of mild to moderately affected PD patients using DTI and...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Diffusion-weighted imaging can depict secondary signal change of the substantia nigra of patients with ipsilateral striatal infarction via a decrease in the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC). Clinical predictors of this phenomenon remain unclear. METHODS We assessed 98 stroke patients with acute ischemic lesions in the hemilateral basal ganglia, external capsule, or ...

The most significant pathological feature of Parkinson's disease (PD) is the progressive degeneration of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra. Currently, available treatments for PD cannot prevent the loss of DA neurons. Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) expressed in substantia nigra neurons catalyzes the conversion of tyrosine to L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA), which is the rate-li...