Department of Neurology, University of Rostock, Gehlsheimer Str. 20, 18147, Rostock, Germany.
J Neural Transm (Vienna). 2011 Apr;118(4):607-12. doi: 10.1007/s00702-010-0564-7. Epub 2010 Dec 29.
During the past two decades, transcranial sonography (TCS) has developed to an increasingly used brain imaging method that visualizes characteristic patterns of basal ganglia alterations in distinct movement disorders. Since the discovery of a characteristic abnormal hyperechogenic appearance of substantia nigra (SN) on TCS in Parkinson's disease (PD), which is stable during the course of the disease and probably present already in preclinical disease stages, the results of several studies have promoted the idea that this TCS finding in healthy subjects might be a risk marker of PD. The present view summarizes current scientific evidence favouring the idea that the TCS finding of SN hyperechogenicity alone may not be a (strong) risk marker of PD. Especially, it is discussed how reliable this TCS finding is, whether this TCS finding can be regarded as a progression marker or a risk marker of PD, how strongly it may indicate a risk of PD, what else if not an increased risk of PD could be indicated, and which role TCS of SN may finally play in the detection of subjects at risk of PD.
在过去的二十年中，经颅超声（TCS）已发展成为一种越来越常用的脑成像方法，可用于可视化不同运动障碍中基底节改变的特征模式。自从在帕金森病（PD）中发现 TCS 上黑质（SN）的特征性异常高回声表现以来，该方法在疾病过程中是稳定的，并且可能已经存在于临床前疾病阶段，因此多项研究的结果促进了这样的观点，即健康受试者中的这种 TCS 发现可能是 PD 的风险标志物。目前的观点总结了目前支持以下观点的科学证据，即 SN 高回声的 TCS 发现本身可能不是 PD 的（强）风险标志物。特别是，讨论了这种 TCS 发现的可靠性，它是否可以被视为 PD 的进展标志物或风险标志物，它可能指示 PD 风险的程度，除了 PD 风险增加之外，还可以指示什么，以及 TCS 的 SN 最终可能在检测 PD 风险的受试者中发挥什么作用。
