Presentation
Left lower limb bradykinesia.
Patient Data
There is normal, symmetrical tracer uptake in the basal ganglia.
Case Discussion
Differentiating Parkinson's disease from other pathology is possible by visualising the amount of dopaminergic degradation in the basal ganglia. The radiopharmaceutical N-3-[18F]fluoropropyl-2β-carbomethoxy-3β-4-iodophenyl nortropane ([18F]FP-CIT) has a high affinity for dopamine transporters which are situated at terminals of dopaminergic neurones. Combined with PET, FP-CIT offers superior contrast to similar SPECT imaging tracers.
Parkinson's disease demonstrates decreased uptake in the caudate nucleus and putamen. A normal FP-CIT study such as above demonstrates a characteristic mirrored comma shape of the striata on axial view.
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