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Manipal : Nuclear Medicine Physicians at Kasturba Hospital Manipal performs the TRODAT scan - an important functional imaging tool to diagnose Parkinson’s disease for the first time in coastal Karnataka. Parkinson’s disease (PD), a common neurological disorder, is primarily associated with a progressive loss of dopaminergic (neurotransmitter) neurons.  Accurate and early diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease is vital for effective treatment.

The Diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease is based on clinical signs and symptoms, but the error rate is high in general community.  The onset of molecular and cellular neuropathology of PD occurs years before the onset of the motor symptoms characteristic of PD as 60-80% loss of dopaminergic neurons are required before symptoms emerge.  Conventionally it is a major clinical diagnostic problem, especially in its early stages because symptoms and signs resembles several other disease entities. Also currently there are no accepted laboratory biomarkers for the disease and CT & MRI findings are unremarkable.

TRODAT scan assist the neuro-physician to identify Parkinson’s disease at a very early stage, help differentiate between Parkinson syndromes from essential tremor, drug induced Parkinsonism, dystonia and psychogenic causes. If a scan is normal then patient could avoid unnecessary long-term therapy with its several side effects.

Dr (Col) M Dayananda Medical Superintendent and COO, Kasturba Hospital, Manipal announcing the achievement first of its kind in coastal belt of Karnataka, said that “specific training is required to identify the Parkinson’s in early stages through scan”. Our Nuclear Medicine Specialist trained at AIIMS, New Delhi were able to perform the scan and identify early stage Parkinson’s. The simple scan with no side effects was performed on 11^th January 2017 and now Kasturba Hospital offers a very low cost package for this scan compared to the centres in Bangalore or other metros.