Artificial intelligence techniques support nuclear medicine modalities to improve the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and Parkinsonian syndromes

Purpose The aim of this review is to discuss the most significant contributions about the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to support the diagnosis of movement disorders through nuclear medicine modalities. Methods The work is based on a selection of papers available on PubMed, Scopus and Web of Sciences. Articles not written in English were not considered in this study. Results Many papers are available concerning the increasing contribution of machine learning techniques to classify Parkinson's disease (PD), Parkinsonian syndromes and Essential Tremor (ET) using data derived from brain SPECT with dopamine transporter radiopharmaceuticals. Other papers investigate by AI techniques data obtained by 123I-MIBG myocardial scintigraphy to differentially diagnose PD and other Parkinsonian syndromes. Conclusion The recent literature provides strong evidence that AI techniques can play a fundamental role in the diagnosis of movement disorders by means of nuclear medicine modalities, therefore paving the way towards personalized medicine.