Doctors have been using DaTscan brain imaging as a tool to help diagnose the Parkinson’s disease (PD) for more than a decade, but even people who know a lot about the disease often still have questions about its role — and the role of other imaging tools — in diagnosis and care. What’s a DaTscan, and how does it relate to PET, SPECT and MRI? When is a DaTscan or other brain imaging tool used in PD? What are their applications in research? Are there any risks?
In this audio from our Third Thursdays Webinar, experts and people with PD offer listeners an impromptu course in Brain Imaging 101. You’ll learn to differentiate the different types of imaging used to visualize the brain and how they are used in PD research and care. You’ll also learn the latest in efforts to visualize alpha-synuclein, the protein that misfolds and clumps in Parkinson’s, and what its selective imaging in the living brain will mean for PD clinical trials and care.
If you’d rather listen on the go, subscribe to our Michael J. Fox Foundation Parkinson's Podcast on iTunes or through any podcast app on your smartphone or tablet. If you enjoyed what you heard, share it with a friend or leave a review on iTunes. It helps listeners like you find and support our mission.
Tune in as Catherine Kopil, PhD, senior vice president of clinical research for The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF), leads the discussion with our panelists:
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John Seibyl, MD, founder, Institute for Neurodegenerative Disorders and adjunct professor, Yale University School of Medicine
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Madeleine Sharp, MD, neurologist specializing in movement disorders and professor, neurology and neurosurgery, McGill University
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Peter DiBiaso, member, MJFF Patient Council and professional in clinical development for pharmaceutical research
View a transcript of this podcast.
You can learn more from our Ask the MD article about DaTscan and from our update about the Ken Griffin Alpha-synuclein Imaging Competition.
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