Estimation of further disease progression of Parkinson’s disease by dopamin transporter scan vs clinical rating

Clinical evolution of Parkinson's disease and prognostic factors affecting motor progression: 9‐year follow‐up study

“…Numerous studies have extensively tested and evaluated its use and found it to reliably assess progression of the cardinal motor features of PD . In addition, functional imaging techniques, which are valuable diagnostic tools used to support the clinical diagnosis, have been found to correlate with UPDRS motor scores . Studies showed that increases in UPDRS motor scores reflected the gradual and selective degeneration of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons and their transporters .…”

“…Of the many measures developed, the most widely accepted clinical rating scale is the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), originally developed in the 1980s . Previous systemic evaluations of the different scales have shown that the UPDRS has a high validity as well as a predictive value on disability in the course of disease progression .…”

Glucocerebrosidase mutations and the pathogenesis of Parkinson disease

“…They represent a non-invasive approach and scans may be abnormal before motor signs appear and can progress as neurodegeneration continues. However, with the exception of TCS, they are expensive and do not always correlate with the clinical findings, especially in the early stages of the disease (Vogt et al, 2011), limiting their usefulness in standard diagnostic situations. Furthermore, these imaging modalities do not make the distinction between different parkinsonian syndromes, and they can be affected by dopaminergic medication.…”

Distinguishing idiopathic Parkinson's disease from other parkinsonian syndromes by breath test

“…A variety of imaging tools such as PET, SPECT, MRI, Diffusion Tensor MRI, and Transcranial Sonography (TCS) exist which can be used to differentiate between different parkinsonian conditions [4]. These techniques can detect abnormalities in the basal ganglia even before clinical signs appear, but do not reliably distinguish between different neurodegenerative parkinsonian syndromes in all cases, and the detected abnormalities do not always correlate well with disease progression [2,5]. There is much effort being directed towards development of biomarkers for iPD, but no suitable biomarker is yet available for general use [2].…”