Hi Laura,
I asked a research team whether there was a way of measureing the permeability of the BBB while the person was still living! The answer was yes.
In the PDONline paper,see

http://www.pdonlineresearch.org/resp...ain-barrier-pd

I proposed a simple experiment to confirm the theory.

" In a communication with Prof. Al Lossinsky, he confirmed that BBB permeability can be measured in a living person, stating,

]“Yes, there are methods available in the clinic to measure BBB leakage in humans. The person would be given special radio-opaque tracers into their blood and any increased permeability would be measured in special scanners."

Therefore, the BBB permeability should be measured in a group of PD patients with a spectrum of progression, from slight to severe.

If a correlation can be established, ie if the slight person is close to the permeability of a normal person , then increasing severity of symptoms shows an increasing permeability figure, this will be a massive step foreward.

A simple measurement of the permeability would confirm the PD diagnosis or otherwise.

New drugs or treatments could be evaluated simply and cheaply by their ability to show a reduction in permeability, by the time and level of reduction.

A reduction in permeability to that below the threshold of dopamine leakage would constitute a cure."[/COLOR]

This would be a fairly inexpensive experiment, and look at the information it would give.
Ron