Persistence of the striatal hypertrophy at the symptomatic stage of genetically determined and idiopathic parkinsonism

Objectives: An increase in gray matter volume in the striatum has been proposed as a mechanism of presymptomatic compensation in asymptomatic heterozygous Parkin- and PINK1- gene mutation carriers (Binkofski et al., 2004). In the present study we investigated changes of basal ganglia (BG) volumes in symptomatic carriers of Parkin gene mutation and in patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (iPD) using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). In particular, we determined whether the increase in striatal volume is still present in patients with parkinsonism and whether it depends on the severity of symptoms. Methods: W…