Molecular imaging in Parkinsonism: The essential for clinical practice and future perspectives

Nuclear medicine with positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) develops powerful tools in molecular imaging to help clinicians in the challenging diagnosis of parkinsonism. These techniques can provide biomarkers for neurodegenerative parkinsonism and to distinguish Parkinson disease (PD) from atypical parkinsonism. This review summarizes the main SPECT and PET contributions to the diagnosis of parkinsonism. We will also discuss new technologies in the field of nuclear imaging and their potential contribution to the diagnosis of parkinsonian syndromes.