Abnormal metabolic covariance patterns associated with multiple system atrophy and progressive supranuclear palsy.

Purpose: Differentiation between neurodegenerative parkinsonisms, whose early clinical presentation is similar, may be improved with metabolic brain imaging. In this study we applied a specific network analysis to 2-[F]FDG PET brain scans to identify the characteristic metabolic patterns for multiple system atrophy (MSA) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) in a new European cohort. We also developed a new tool to recognize and estimate patients' metabolic brain heterogeneity.