Tremor dominant (TD) and akinetic-rigid type (ART) are two motor subtypes of Parkinson's disease associated with different disease progression and neurochemical/neuropathological features. The role of presynaptic nigrostriatal dopaminergic damage is still controversial, poorly explored, and only assessed in medicated patients. In this study, we investigated with FP-CIT SPECT the striatal dopamine transporter (DAT) availability in drug-naïve PD patients with ART and TD phenotypes. Fifty-one de novo, drug-naïve patients with PD underwent FP-CIT SPECT studies. Patients were evaluated with Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) part III and Hoehn and Yahr scale (H&Y) and divided into ART (24/51) and TD (27/51) according to UPDRS part III. ART and TD patients were not different with regard to age, gender, and disease duration. However, compared to TD, ART patients presented higher UPDRS part III (p = 0.01) and H&Y (p = 0.02) and lower DAT availability in affected and unaffected putamen (p = 0.008 and p = 0.007, respectively), whereas no differences were found in caudate. Moreover, in the whole group of patients, rigidity and bradykinesia, but not tremor scores of UPDRS part III were significantly related to FP-CIT binding in the putamen. These results suggest that in newly diagnosed drug-naïve PD patients DAT availability might be different between ART and TD in relation to different disease severity.

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To characterize the anatomy of the venous outflow of the mouse brain using different imaging techniques. Ten C57/black male mice (age range: 7-8 weeks) were imaged with high-frequency Ultrasound, Magnetic Resonance Angiography and ex-vivo Microcomputed tomography of the head and neck. Under general anesthesia, Ultrasound of neck veins was performed with a 20MHz transducer; head and neck Magnetic Resonance Angiography data were collected on 9.4T or 7T scanners, and ex-vivo Microcomputed tomography angiography was obtained by filling the vessels with a radiopaque inert silicone rubber compound. All procedures were approved by the local ethical committee. The dorsal intracranial venous system is quite similar in mice and humans. Instead, the mouse Internal Jugular Veins are tiny vessels receiving the sigmoid sinuses and tributaries from cerebellum, occipital lobe and midbrain, while the majority of the cerebral blood, i.e. from the olfactory bulbs and fronto-parietal lobes, is apparently drained through skull base connections into the External Jugular Vein. Three main intra-extracranial anastomoses, absent in humans, are: 1) the petrosquamous sinus, draining into the posterior facial vein, 2) the veins of the olfactory bulb, draining into the superficial temporal vein through a foramen of the frontal bone 3) the cavernous sinus, draining in the External Jugular Vein through a foramen of the sphenoid bone. The anatomical structure of the mouse cranial venous outflow as depicted by Ultrasound, Microcomputed tomography and Magnetic Resonance Angiography is different from humans, with multiple connections between intra- and extra- cranial veins.