How useful is (123I) beta-CIT SPECT in the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease?

Abstract

Because clinical features of parkinsonism can occur in other forms of parkinsonian syndromes in addition to Parkinson's disease, neuroimaging may have a role in determining true disease status. Iodine-123 ((123)I) (2beta-carboxymethoxy-3beta-[4-iodophenyl] tropane) or ((123)I) beta-CIT is a recently developed diagnostic biomarker of Parkinson's disease that provides in vivo information about nigrostriatal degeneration. In clinical trials, beta-CIT single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) has been shown to be a highly sensitive diagnostic tool in differentiating clinically probable Parkinson's disease from normal subjects and essential tremor patients. As a tool for differentiating Parkinson's disease from atypical parkinsonian syndromes, ((123)I) beta-CIT SPECT may have more limited use because of more extensive postsynaptic pathology in the latter. Differentiating among various parkinsonian syndromes may be improved by methodological refinements, a combined strategy of imaging presynaptic and postsynaptic sites, or by metabolic imaging.

• Authors: Roongroj Bhidayasiri
• Journal: Reviews in neurological diseases (Rev Neurol Dis) Vol. 3 Issue 1 Pg. 19-22 ( 2006) ISSN: 1545-2913 [Print] United States
• PMID: 16596082 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, Review)

Chemical References

• Iodine Radioisotopes
• Radiopharmaceuticals
• 2beta-carbomethoxy-3beta-(4-iodophenyl)tropane
• Cocaine

Topics

• Brain (diagnostic imaging, metabolism)
• Cocaine (analogs & derivatives, metabolism)
• Essential Tremor (diagnostic imaging, metabolism)
• Humans
• Iodine Radioisotopes (metabolism)
• Parkinson Disease (diagnostic imaging, metabolism)
• Radiopharmaceuticals (metabolism)
• Sensitivity and Specificity
• Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon (methods)