Comparative analysis of striatal [18F]FDOPA uptake in a partial lesion model of Parkinson's disease in rats: Ratio method versus graphical model

Animal models of Parkinson's disease are useful to evaluate new treatments and to elucidate the etiology of the disease. Hence, it is necessary to have methods that allow quantification of their effectiveness. [18F]FDOPA‐PET (FDOPA‐PET) imaging is outstanding for this purpose because of its capacity to measure changes in the dopaminergic pathway noninvasively and in vivo. Nevertheless, PET acquisition and quantification is time‐consuming making it necessary to find faster ways to quantify FDOPA‐PET data. This study evaluated Male Wistar rats by FDOPA, before and after being partially injured with 6‐OHDA unilaterally. MicroPET scans with a duration of 120 min were acquired and Patlak reference plots were created to estimate the influx constant Kc in the striatum using the full dynamic scan data. Additionally, simple striatal‐to‐cerebral ratios (SCR) of short static acquisitions were computed and compared with the Kc values. Good correlation (r > 0.70) was obtained between Kc and SCR, acquired between 80–120 min after FDOPA administration with frames of 10 or 20 min and both methods were able to separate the FDOPA‐uptake of healthy controls from that of the PD model (SCR −28%, Kc −71%). The present study concludes that Kc and SCR can be trustfully used to discriminate partially lesioned rats from healthy controls.