AGE-DEPENDENT DECLINE OF NIGROSTRIATAL DOPAMINERGIC FUNCTION - A POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHIC STUDY OF GRANDPARENTS AND THEIR GRANDCHILDREN

Despite postmortem evidence for an age-related decline in nigrostriata l dopaminergic function, positron emission tomography (PET) studies ha ve produced inconsistent results. This may be due to differences in me thods or of subject selection. To investigate further the effect of ag e on dopaminergic function, we performed PET with 6-L-[F-l8]fluorodopa (FD) on 12 pairs of grandchildren and their grandparents. The FD upta ke rate constant (K-i) was calculated using a graphical method for the whole striatum to avoid confounding of the results by striatal atroph y. The mean K-i was significantly lower in grandparents (P = 0.020). T hese PET observations represent in vivo confirmation of postmortem evi dence that nigrostriatal dopaminergic function declines with aging.