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Transcranial sonography (TCS) of the substantia nigra is a new and promising method to diagnose Parkinson's disease (PD) but its effectiveness is controversial.

All 55 PD patients involved in the study underwent single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging using the labeled dopamine transporter radiotracer ^99mTc-TRODAT-1 to assess nigrostriatal dopaminergic function. The echogenicity of the substantia nigra was measured by TCS in all patients who received DAT-SPECT scanning. Finally, statistical analysis was carried out to determine the diagnostic accuracy of TCS as well as its correlation with ^99mTc-TRODAT-1 SPECT, its positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV).

Contralateral striatal ^99mTc-TRODAT-1 uptake was significantly reduced compared to ipsilateral striatal uptake, and had a negative correlation with UPDRS-Ⅲ(r = −0 …