NeuroTalk Support Groups - SO YOU WERE DIAGNOSED w/ PD -do you know where your dopamine levels are? by Jo Rosen

SO YOU WERE DIAGNOSED
WITH PARKINSON’S...
DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR
DOPAMINE LEVELS ARE?

written by Jo Rosen at PRO -this is from PRO's - August Newsletter -

Many people who have come to the PRO
educational support group meetings, particularly
the Round Table Discussions, have heard about
the Fluorodopa PET Scan.
Generally the audience is asked how many of the
people diagnosed with Parkinson’s have had a Fluorodopa
PET Scan. Followed by how many were offered the
opportunity of having a Fluorodopa PET Scan? Generally
the answer is that no one had a Fluorodopa PET Scan, no
one was offered the opportunity and generally they have
not even heard of a Fluorodopa PET Scan.
When women meet the age of 40 they are encouraged
to undergo a mammogram, annually or every 1 to 2 years.
What is the purpose for starting early? In addition to a
screening tool, it gives medical professionals a baseline.
As the woman ages and her tissue changes, through
ensuing mammograms, this annual screening record
gives the medical team information to make critical
medical decisions, especially when having a “baseline.”
It seems that in Parkinson’s it would be very helpful
to the medical professionals to make very important
medical decisions if they were able to review and follow
a Fluorodopa PET Scan on a person diagnosed with
Parkinson’s.
A Fluorodopa PET Scan is the use of Positron Emission
Tomography (PET) with Fluorodopa.
A plain X-ray or computed tomography scan creates
images by beaming radiation (X-rays) from a machine
through the patient and onto film.
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) uses gamma rays
in the form of radioisotopes (compounds that contain
radioactive forms of atoms) to scan the body and create
images that can be viewed by the medical professionals.
The gamma rays used in PET Scans come from particular
radioisotopes that are either swallowed or injected into
the person being scanned. Special cameras are used
that can observe the gamma rays, until the camera has
caught sight of enough gamma rays to create an image
on a computer that represents where the radioisotope is
located within the body.
Fluorodopa PET scans use Fluorodopa, a radioactively
labeled form of levodopa that is injected into the patient’s
vein. This type of PET scan is extremely sensitive to
changes in the number of dopamine cells in the patient’s
brain. Patients who have clinical signs of Parkinson’s
disease have abnormal Fluorodopa PET scans.
For instance: From the Department of Geriatric Medicine
(Drs. Hu, Okamura, Arai, Higuchi, Matsui, Tashiro
cont. on page 7

http://www.parkinsonsresource.org/ne.../PRO_aug08.pdf