Editorial for “Hemispheric Asymmetry of Neuromelanin-Iron Dysfunction in the Substantia Nigra: MRI-Based Evidence for Lateralized Motor Onset in Early-Stage Parkinson's Disease”

The pioneering studies on measurement of neuromelanin (NM) concentration in the substantia nigra (SN) of healthy and Parkinson's disease (PD) subjects suggested that “NM appears to be a good marker of damage to the SN pars compacta (SNc) in PD. As such, the development of NM in vivo imaging techniques may offer diagnostic and disease staging measurements, matching the available tools used to monitor striatal dopamine depletion and offering the first direct approach to recognize and quantify nigral damage” [1]. This development of both NM sensitive magnetic resonance imaging techniques and the refinement of analysis tools for accurate analyses could help finding clinical markers for dopaminergic degenerative processes.