Objective measures for the progression of Parkinson’s disease
Objective measure of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic deficit: evidence that SPECT does the job
A persisting frustration in the diagnosis, treatment, and research of Parkinson’s disease is the lack of an objective measure of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic deficit. In particular, we need a tool to monitor the progress of the neuronal degeneration. This is very difficult to achieve clinically in Parkinson’s disease because of the complex clinical presentation and the confounding effect of symptomatic therapy. Although PET, with markers of presynaptic dopaminergic function such as 6-fluorodopa, is an …
