Objective To explore ¹⁸F-FDG brain metabolism and ¹¹C-2βcarbomethoxy-3β(4-fluorophenyl) tropane (¹¹C-CFT) brain dopamine transporter(DAT) PET dual imaging in the diagnosis and evaluation of the severity of Parkinson's disease(PD).

Methods Fifty-five patients with different severity of PD and 30 cases of healthy controls were subjected to ¹⁸F-FDG cerebral metabolic imaging and ¹¹C-CFT DAT PET imaging examination, in which ROI were outlined to compare the differences in glucose metabolism and DAT distribution in the basal ganglia of PD with different severity among the patients and those of healthy controls based on the PET images. ¹⁸F-FDG PET and ¹¹C-CFT PET imaging were used to assess severity of PD.

Results By comparison with the healthy controls, ¹⁸F-FDG PET imaging indicates that the changes in brain metabolism caused by PD mainly show improvement in symmetry of bilateral basal ganglia putamen. Moreover, some PD cases are accompanied with reduction in the metabolism of cerebral cortex to varying degrees. ¹¹C-CFT PET imaging in PD patients indicates that DAT distribution in their bilateral caudate nucleus, bilateral anterior putamen, medio-putamen, and posterior putamen decreased in different degrees. Based on the symptoms of unilateral or bilateral PD, DAT distribution on the contralateral basal ganglia putamen decreased, whereas posterior putamen DAT distribution decreased more prominently. Conclusion ¹⁸F-FDG PET and ¹¹C-CFT PET imaging dual joint inspection has a significant value in diagnosing and assessing the severity of PD.