Software application: Diffusion weighted imaging parameters to explore new insights into Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease is a progressive, degenerative neurological condition, which origin remains unclear. Assuming the hypothesis that microcirculatory disturbances suggest possible impairments that affect the neural activity causing the progressive death of neurons in the substance nigra; based on findings that demonstrated relative hypoactivity located to basal ganglia, and particular diffusivity and anisotropy measures in regions that are characterized by the degeneration of the dopaminergic neurons. Incoherent motion intravoxel and diffusional kurtosis imaging are valuables methods in studding that have still to explore, in order to approach to understand the alterations that could be significant in Parkinson's disease. This paper proposes an image-J tool, useful to investigate the changes in microvascular level in substance nigra, and vascularization evidenced by reticulin staining in the zona compacta which could be reflected by quantification of tissue structure provided by non-Gaussian diffusion. Also, some preliminary parameters obtained from a normal volunteer show high correlation between perfusion and kurtosis in the midbrain. These parameters provide possibility Parkinson's disease biomarkers in future studies.