With a special PET scan that focuses on dopamine transport, these Korean researchers concluded that PSP (progressive supranuclear palsy) patients showed “more prominent and earlier dopamine transporter loss” in the anterior caudate, a region of the brain, and that MSA (multiple system atrophy) patients showed “more prominent and earlier dopamine transporter loss” in the ventral putamen, another region of the brain, when compared to Parkinson’s Disease.
None of the diagnoses are autopsy-confirmed, which is what is needed for the medical community to embrace this sort of PET scan.
I’ve copied the abstract below.
Robin
——————————
Journal of Nuclear Medicine. 2012 Feb 9. [Epub ahead of print]
Subregional Patterns of Preferential Striatal Dopamine Transporter Loss Differ in Parkinson Disease, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, and Multiple-System Atrophy.
Oh M, Kim JS, Kim JY, Shin KH, Park SH, Kim HO, Moon DH, Oh SJ, Chung SJ, Lee CS.
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Asan Medical Center, College of Medicine, University of Ulsan, Seoul, Korea.
Abstract
Parkinson disease (PD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and multiple-system atrophy (MSA) are known to affect dopaminergic neurons of the brain stem and striatum with different preferential involvement. Here we investigated differences in striatal subregional dopamine transporter loss in PD, PSP, and MSA and assessed the diagnostic value of (18)F-fluorinated-N-3-fluoropropyl-2-beta-carboxymethoxy-3-beta-(4-iodophenyl)nortropane ((18)F-FP-CIT) PET in differentiating PSP and MSA from PD.
METHODS:
Forty-nine patients with PD, 19 patients with PSP, 24 patients with MSA, and 21 healthy people (healthy controls) were examined with (18)F-FP-CIT PET.
The PET images were spatially normalized and analyzed with 12 striatal subregional volume-of-interest (VOI) templates (bilateral ventral striatum [VS], anterior caudate [AC], posterior caudate, anterior putamen, posterior putamen [PP], and ventral putamen [VP]) and 1 occipital VOI template. The nondisplaceable binding potential (BP(ND)) and intersubregional ratio (ISR; defined as the ratio of the BP(ND) of one striatal subregion to that of another striatal subregion) of subregional VOIs were calculated.
RESULTS:
The BP(ND) of all VOIs in the PD, MSA, and PSP groups were significantly lower than those in the healthy controls (P < 0.05).
The BP(ND) of AC and the AC/VS ISR in the PSP group were significantly lower than those in the PD group.
The BP(ND) of VP was significantly lower, but the PP/VP ISR was significantly higher in the MSA group than in the PD group.
At the cutoff value for the AC/VS ISR (<0.7), the sensitivity and specificity for differentiating PSP from PD were 94% and 92%, respectively.
At the cutoff value for the PP/VP ISR (>0.65), the sensitivity and specificity for differentiating MSA from PD were 90% and 45%, respectively.
The diagnostic accuracy of visual analysis was similar to that of quantitative analysis for differentiating PSP from PD but was significantly higher for differentiating MSA from PD.
CONCLUSION:
Compared with PD, PSP and MSA showed more prominent and earlier dopamine transporter loss in the AC and VP, respectively. These findings could be useful for suggesting PSP or MSA in parkinsonian cases without characteristic atypical features.
PubMed ID#: 22323779 (see pubmed.gov for this abstract only)