title: Combined visual and semi-quantitative assessment of123I-FP-CIT SPECT for the diagnosis of dopaminergic neurodegenerative diseases.
abstract: Visual and semi-quantitative assessments of123I-FP-CIT single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) are useful for the diagnosis of dopaminergic neurodegenerative diseases (dNDD), including Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, progressive supranuclear palsy, multiple system atrophy, and corticobasal degeneration. However, the diagnostic value of combined visual and semi-quantitative assessment in dNDD remains unclear. Among 239 consecutive patients with a newly diagnosed possible parkinsonian syndrome who underwent123I-FP-CIT SPECT in our medical center, 114 patients with a disease duration less than 7 years were diagnosed as dNDD with the established criteria or as non-dNDD according to clinical judgment. We retrospectively examined their clinical characteristics and visual and semi-quantitative assessments of123I-FP-CIT SPECT. The striatal binding ratio (SBR) was used as a semi-quantitative measure of123I-FP-CIT SPECT. We calculated the sensitivity and specificity of visual assessment alone, semi-quantitative assessment alone, and combined visual and semi-quantitative assessment for the diagnosis of dNDD. SBR was correlated with visual assessment. Some dNDD patients with a normal visual assessment had an abnormal SBR, and vice versa. There was no statistically significant difference between sensitivity of the diagnosis with visual assessment alone and semi-quantitative assessment alone (91.2 vs. 86.8%, respectively, p = 0.29). Combined visual and semi-quantitative assessment demonstrated superior sensitivity (96.7%) to visual assessment (p = 0.03) or semi-quantitative assessment (p = 0.003) alone with equal specificity. Visual and semi-quantitative assessments of123I-FP-CIT SPECT are helpful for the diagnosis of dNDD, and combined visual and semi-quantitative assessment shows superior sensitivity with equal specificity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital, 2-1-1, Minatojimaminamimachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe City, 650-0047, Japan.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ueda
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital, 2-1-1, Minatojimaminamimachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe City, 650-0047, Japan. hajime-y@kcho.jp.
authors.forename: Hajime
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yoshimura
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital, 2-1-1, Minatojimaminamimachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe City, 650-0047, Japan.
authors.forename: Keiji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital, 2-1-1, Minatojimaminamimachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe City, 650-0047, Japan.
authors.forename: Megumu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hino
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital, 2-1-1, Minatojimaminamimachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe City, 650-0047, Japan.
authors.forename: Nobuo
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kohara
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000378:metabolism*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020961:Lewy Body Disease / Q000175:diagnosis; D008297:Male; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013494:Supranuclear Palsy, Progressive / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000379:methods; D014326:Tropanes / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014326:Tropanes; C087552:2-carbomethoxy-8-(3-fluoropropyl)-3-(4-iodophenyl)tropane
keywords: 123I-FP-CIT SPECT; Dopamine transporter; Parkinson’s disease; Semi-quantitative assessment; Visual assessment