Meta-analysis of the literature on diagnostic accuracy of SPECT in parkinsonian syndromes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder. One of the most widely used techniques to diagnose PD is a Single Photon Emission Computer Tomography (SPECT) scan to visualise the integrity of the dopaminergic pathways in the brain. Despite this there remains some discussion on the value of SPECT in the differential diagnosis of PD. We did a meta-analysis of all the existing literature on the diagnostic accuracy of both pre- and post-synaptic SPECT imaging in the differential diagnosis of PD.

Methods

Relevant studies were searched in Medline, EMBASE and Cochrane databases with back-searching of their reference lists. We limited our analysis to studies with a clinically relevant methodology: i.e. when they assessed the ability of the

SUBMITTER: Vlaar AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2064928 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature