Visual assessment of degeneration pattern in 123I-FP-CIT SPECT differentiates patients with atypical parkinsonism and Parkinson's disease

Purpose: To investigate the abilitiy of visual assessment and quantitative analysis of 123I-FP-CIT SPECT to differentiate idiopathic Parkinson disease (PD) and atypical parkinsonian syndromes (APS). Methods: 165 patients with a clinical diagnosis of PD (n=120) or APS (n=45) underwent 123I-FP-CIT SPECT and were included in the current study. 123I-FP-CIT SPECT results were analysed visually and quantitatively and compared for PD and APS and for the subgroup of patients with early PD and APS (disease duration < 5 years). Quantitative assessment was performed with a 2D manual and a 3D automated approach. Visual asse…