Objective: We investigated whether patients with persistent drug-induced parkinsonism (DIP) showing visually normal dopamine transporter (DAT) imaging had minimal changes in striatal DAT activity using semi-quantitative analysis of [18]F-FP-CIT PET data.

Background: Functional neuroimaging for the DAT is used to distinguish DIP from subclinical Parkinson’s disease (PD). Although DIP patients who show a normal DAT image are expected to recover completely, some do not.

Methods: DIP patients with visually normal DAT images were selected from medical records. The subjects were classified as patients who recovered partially (PR) or completely within 12 months (CR). The [18]F-FP-CIT uptake in each striatal subregion was compared between the CR and the PR groups.

Results: In total, 41 and 9 patients of the CR and PR groups were assessed, respectively. The two patient groups were comparable in terms of clinical characteristics including age, sex, and severity of parkinsonism. From semi-quantitative analysis of the PET image, the PR patients showed a relatively lower ligand uptake in the ventral striatum, the anterior putamen and the posterior putamen compared with the CR patients.

Conclusions: This result implies that chronic exposure of the dopamine receptor blocking agents may cause permanent dysfunction or neuronal damage in the presynaptic neuron.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/persistent-drug-induced-parkinsonism-with-normal-dopamine-transporter-imaging/