Noninvasive PK11195‐PET Image Analysis Techniques Can Detect Abnormal Cerebral Microglial Activation in Parkinson's Disease

Neuroinflammation has been implicated in the pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease (PD), which might be influenced by successful neuroprotective drugs. The uptake of [11C](R)‐PK11195 (PK) is often considered to be a proxy for neuroinflammation, and can be quantified using the Logan graphical method with an image‐derived blood input function, or the Logan reference tissue model using automated reference region extraction. The purposes of this study were (1) to assess whether these noninvasive image analysis methods can discriminate between patients with PD and healthy volunteers (HVs), and (2) to establish the effect size that would be required to distinguish true drug‐induced changes from system variance in longitudinal trials.