Fig. 1

Evaluation of presynaptic dopamine metabolism in 6-[¹⁸F]FDOPA PET. Tracer uptake assessment in the bilateral striatum shown in axial plane imaging (a, b). Spheric VOIs (green circles) were placed in each caput of the caudate nucleus and the anterior, middle and posterior part of both putamina. A single reference sphere was positioned in the occipital cortex (red circles). The left image shows physiologic 6-[¹⁸F]FDOPA uptake in the striatum (a). The right image shows severely reduced uptake in the middle and posterior putamen on both sides, representing a dopaminergic deficit (b)