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PET Predicts Survival in Atypical Parkinsonian Syndrome
Diagnostic Imaging Staff
FDG-PET provides physicians with survival predictions for patients with suspected atypical Parkinsonian syndrome.
FDG-PET can predict survival of patients with clinically suspected atypical Parkinsonian syndrome (APS), according to a study published in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
Researchers from Germany investigated the prognostic value of using FDG-PET compared with clinical diagnosis among patients with APS. Seventy-eight patients with suspected APS were enrolled in the study. All underwent initial FDG-PET imaging and were followed for 5.9 years. Of these patients, 44 were diagnosed with APS and 34 with Lewy body disease. Forty-four patients were still alive at 4.7 months (median) follow-up.
The results showed that patients who had been diagnosed with APS by PET or at one-year clinical follow-up had a median survival time of only 4.1 years, while the remaining patients, with Lewy body disease, had yet to reach median survival time.
| APS (44 patients) | Lewy body disease (34 patients) | |
| Median survival | 4.1 years | Not yet reached |
| One year after initial PET | 27 (61%) had died | 7 (21%) had died |
| Two years after initial PET | 15 (89%) of 17 surviving patients still alive | 25 (94%) of 27 surviving patients still alive |
| Four years after initial PET | 9 patients still alive | 23 patients still alive |
The researchers concluded that use of FDG-PET provided an early predictor of survival in patients with clinically suspected APS. “This finding strongly supports the early inclusion of PET imaging in patient care,” they wrote.
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