Experiences with DaTSCAN™ SPECT in the clinical practice in our Parkinson-Center

Introduction: Accurate and early diagnosis of patients with clinically uncertain extrapyramidal diseases is an object of our Parkinson-Center. Mild, atypical, or confounding signs, however, and little or no response to levodopa for example, can make diagnosis difficult or inconclusive. I-123 FP-CIT (DaTSCAN™), a marker of nigrostriatal neuronal function, allows differentiation of parkinsonism with loss of dopaminergic terminals (presynaptic Parkinson syndromes) from parkinsonism without nigrostriatal degeneration. Methods: We investigated 110 patients with clinically uncertain parkinsonian syndromes (60 male, 50…