gms | German Medical Science

Objective: Recent advances in neuroimaging techniques markedly improved the resolution of the brain images. The high-resolution images of the brain structures by 7.0 tesla (T) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may provide tremendous contribution in the early diagnosis and management of the patients with Parkinson’ disease.

Method: Substantia nigra (SN) is known as one of the key nuclei involved in the PD and the related movement disorders. Direct visualization of SN has been of difficulty with conventional MRI of low-field due to the limited resolution and contrast. 7.0T MRI can clearly delineate and quantify the differences in shape and boundaries of SN between PD patients in comparison with the normal.

Results: 7.0T MRI can directly identify neurosurgical targets such as the subthalamic nucleus (STN) and internal globus pallidus (GPi) in deep brain stimulation (DBS) for the patients with PD. The enhanced spatial resolution associated with 7.0T MRI may help in the identification of sub-nuclei within target structures of particular importance to delineate adjacent eloquent structures that must be avoided. The location of the DBS electrodes can be estimated based on the fused brain images of 7.0T MRI before surgery and those of the brain CT after surgery.

Conclusions: In near future 7.0T MRI may be incorporated into daily practice of neurosurgery as well as the human research tool in neuroscience, neurology, psychiatry for the better understanding of the basic mechanisms of diseases as well as accurate diagnosis and surgical intervention such as DBS and functional radiosurgery for various neurological, psychiatric and neurosurgical diseases.