Transcranial ultrasound may be a valuable tool in differentiating idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (iPD) from atypical parkinsonian syndromes, a study suggests [1].Researchers from Germany and the US assessed 60 patients with early signs of parkinsonism with clinical examination and transcranial B-mode sonography (TCS) at baseline. Hyperechogenicity in the substantia nigra was taken to be indicative of iPD.The diagnosis at 12 months was established by clinical examination, combined with functional PET or SPECT imaging when a definitive diagnosis could not be made on clinical grounds alone.
