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Nigrosomes are calbindin-poor zones within the substantia nigra pars compacta, and are the primary subregion where dopaminergic cells are lost in Parkinson disease. High-resolution 3D multiecho imaging was performed at 3T in 13 healthy subjects and 24 patients with idiopathic Parkinson disease confirmed by ¹⁸F-FP-CIT PET. Diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the nigrosome 1 detection at 3T MR imaging was 100%, 84.6%, and 94.6%, respectively. Further, the clinical laterality was in high concordance with the laterality of the nigrosome 1 detection.

At 7T, 2D multiecho spin-echo T2WI and 3D gradient-echo T2*WI were acquired from 27 formalin-fixed coronal hemispheric brain sections of 15 patients and 4 healthy controls. Proteolipid-stained tissue sections were matched to the corresponding MR images, and lesions were manually scored on both MR imaging sequences and tissue sections. The T2WI sequence detected slightly more lesions than the T2*WI sequence (28% and 16%). When histopathologic information (type, location) was revealed to the reader, the sensitivity went up to 84%. Many lesions are still missed prospectively.