What is the role of DaTSCAN in the diagnosis of Parkinsons Disease?
Reduction of DaT radiotracer uptake correlates with the loss of presynaptic nigrostriatal neurons and is more sensitive than clinical examination to detect nigrostriatal defects.
Striatal dopamine transporter imaging using 123 I-FP-CIT single photon emission tomography (DaTSCAN) can reliably distinguish patients with Parkinsons Disease and other parkinsonian syndromes (i.e., multiple system atrophy, progressive supranuclear palsy, and corticobasal degeneration) from controls or patients with Essential Tremor, but it cannot differentiate Parkinsons Disease and the other parkinsonian syndromes from one another.
