IntroductionThe movement disorder in Parkinson disease (PD) results from depletion of the catecholamine dopamine in the brain's nigrostriatal system (1). PD also entails profound deficiency of the closely related catecholamine norepinephrine (NE) in the heart (2). Other Lewy body diseases -pure autonomic failure (PAF) and dementia with Lewy bodies -also involve severely decreased myocardial NE contents (3).The cardiac sympathoneural lesion in these diseases probably is important clinically. Thus, neuroimaging evidence of cardiac noradrenergic deficiency in PD is associated with cognitive impairment (4), exercise intolerance (5), olfactory dysfunction (6), rapid eye movement behavior disorder (7), visual hallucinations (8), falls from neurogenic orthostatic hypotension (9), fatigue (10), and shortened survival (11).One might presume that the myocardial NE depletion in these disorders directly and solely reflects loss BACKGROUND. Lewy body diseases, a family of aging-related neurodegenerative disorders, entail loss of the catecholamine dopamine in the nigrostriatal system and equally severe deficiency of the closely related catecholamine norepinephrine in the heart. The myocardial noradrenergic lesion is associated with major nonmotor symptoms and decreased survival. Numerous mechanisms determine norepinephrine stores, and which of these are altered in Lewy body diseases has not been examined in an integrated way. We used a computational modeling approach to assess comprehensively pathways of cardiac norepinephrine synthesis, storage, release, reuptake, and metabolism in Lewy body diseases. Application of a potentially novel kinetic model identified a pattern of dysfunctional steps contributing to norepinephrine deficiency. We then tested predictions from the model in a new cohort of Parkinson disease patients.