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Extrastriatal Mean Regional Uptake of Fluorine-18-FDOPA in the Normal Aged Brain—An Approach Using MRI-Aided Spatial Normalization

The aim of this study was to define the mean regional 6-[(18)F]fluoro-l-dopa (FDOPA) uptake rate constant (K(i)) values in the striatal and extrastriatal regions of the brain of normal subjects using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-aided spatial normalization of the FDOPA K(i) image and using automatic region of interest (ROI) analysis. Dynamic three-dimensional FDOPA positron emission tomography (PET) and three-dimensional magnetic resonance (MR) images were acquired in 13 aged normal subjects. The FDOPA add image and the K(i) image of each subject were transformed into standard stereotactic space with the aid of individual coregistered MR image. The mean regional K(i) values of the striatal and extrastriatal regions before normalization were compared with the respective values after normalization. Then automatic ROI analysis was performed on the MRI-aided spatially normalized K(i) images of the 13 normal subjects. The K(i) values on original images and those on spatially normalized images were in good agreement, indicating that the spatial normalization technique did not change the regional K(i) values appreciably. Automatic ROI analysis of the spatially normalized FDOPA K(i) images of the normal subjects, showed high K(i) values in ventral and dorsal regions of the midbrain, amygdala, hippocampus, and medial prefrontal cortex, in addition to caudate nucleus and putamen, which correspond to the dopaminergic projections in the brain. Spatial normalization technique helped to establish a database of FDOPA K(i) images of normal subjects and high K(i) values were observed widely besides striatal regions corresponding to the dopaminergic projections in the brain.