Media Release

Udupi Jan 18: Nuclear Medicine Physicians at Kasturba Hospital Manipal performed a 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 the 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 and 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 scan is normal, then the patient can 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, “Specific training is required to identify the Parkinson’s in early stages through scan. Our nuclear medicine specialists 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 January 11, 2017 and now Kasturba Hospital offers a very low cost package for this scan compared to the centres in Bengaluru or other metros."