title: Positron emission tomography suggests that the rate of progression of idiopathic parkinsonism is slow.
abstract: We performed sequential positron emission tomography scans with 6-[18F]fluoro-L-dopa in 9 patients with idiopathic parkinsonism and 7 age-matched normal control subjects to compare changes in the nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathway over time. The mean interval between the scans was 3.3 years for the group with idiopathic parkinsonism and 3.9 years for the control subjects. The scans were analyzed by calculating the ratio of striatal to background radioactivity. Both groups showed statistically significant reductions of striatal uptake over the interval. The rate of decrease was almost identical in each group (p = 0.6). We infer that the usual rate of loss of integrity of the dopaminergic nigrostriatal pathway in patients with idiopathic parkinsonism is slow and the rate of change between the two groups was comparable.
authors.affiliation: Belzberg Laboratory of Clinical Neuroscience, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Bhatt
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Snow
authors.forename: W R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: B D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Pate
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Ruth
authors.forename: D B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Calne
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005462:Fluorine Radioisotopes / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D006801:Humans; D007980:Levodopa / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed
chemical_list: D005462:Fluorine Radioisotopes; D007980:Levodopa