99mTc-TRODAT-1 SPECT study in early Parkinson's disease and essential tremor.
OBJECTIVE
The clinical differentiation between early Parkinson's disease (PD) and essential tremor (ET) could be difficult, therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate 99mTc-TRODAT-1 SPECT as an applicable tool in this field.


METHODS
99mTc-TRODAT-1 single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) was performed in 10 healthy volunteers, 27 patients with idiopathic PD (Hoehn and Yahr 1-1.5) and 12 patients with ET. The ratio of striatal (99m)Tc-TRODAT-1 binding was calculated as the index of (striatum - occipital cortex)/occipital cortex.


RESULTS
Compared with the striatal 99mTc-TRODAT-1 uptake in the ET group (0.49 +/- 0.07) or healthy controls (0.54 +/- 0.18), there was a significant decrease in the bilateral striatums of early PD, with a greater reduction in the contralateral striatum (0.27 +/- 0.08) than ipsilateral one (0.36 +/- 0.10, P < 0.01). Its sensitivity and specificity of differentiating early PD from ET was 96.4% and 91.7% respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
99mTc-TRODAT-1 SPECT can detect the dysfunction of nigrostriatal system in patients with early PD and provided a feasible tool to help differentiate early PD from ET.
Wang
J
J
Institute of Neurology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. wangjian336@hotmail.com
Jiang
Y-P
YP
Liu
X-D
XD
Chen
Z-P
ZP
Yang
L-Q
LQ
Liu
C-J
CJ
Xiang
J-D
JD
Su
H-L
HL
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D020329:Essential Tremor / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D012016:Reference Values; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000379:methods*; D014326:Tropanes
D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds; D014326:Tropanes; C104196:technetium Tc 99m TRODAT-1