New visualization method gets to the heart of Parkinson’s disease

WNPRC scientist Marina Emborg and her team developed a nonhuman-primate model that lets researchers visualize, in real time, the heart-nerve damage Parkinson’s disease causes — using PET imaging to track inflammation and nerve loss in the hearts of rhesus macaques. The advance could help detect and treat a serious but under-recognized effect of Parkinson’s on the heart.