A new quantitative index in the diagnosis of Parkinson syndrome by dopamine transporter single-photon emission computed tomography

Objective Dopamine transporter single-photon emission computed tomography (DAT SPECT) has been widely used to diagnose Parkinson syndrome. Using the standardized uptake value (SUV) of DAT SPECT, we propose “functional dopamine transporter volume (f-DTV)” as a new quantitative index to evaluate the three-dimensional volume of functional dopamine transporters and assess its diagnostic ability in differentiating dopaminergic neurodegenerative diseases (dNDD) from non-dNDD. Methods Seventy-nine patients were enrolled (42 dNDD, 37 non-dNDD; 38 men; age 24–88 years). We analyzed seven quantitative indices. The specific binding ratio (SBR) was calculated using a program specialized for DAT SPECT (SBR_Bolt). The SUVmax, SUVpeak, and SUVmean were calculated using a quantification program for bone SPECT. SBR_SUV was calculated by dividing striatal SUVmean by the average of background SUVmean. The cutoff value of the active dopamine transporter level was examined using three methods (threshold of 40% of SUVmax, SUV 2, and SUV 3) to calculate the active dopamine transporter volume (ADV). The f-DTV was calculated by multiplying ADV and SUV mean . We assessed the correlations between SBR_Bolt and SBR_SUV, and compared the mean value of each index between the dNDD and non-dNDD groups. The abilities of SBR_Bolt, SBR_SUV, SUVmax, SUVpeak, SUVmean, ADV, and f-DTV in differentiating dNDD from non-dNDD were determined by the area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) generated by the receiver operating characteristics analysis. Results The SBR_Bolt and SBR_SUV highly correlated with each other ( r = 0.71). The cutoff value of the active dopamine transporter level was determined as SUV 3. All seven quantitative indices showed lower values in the dNDD group than in the non-dNDD group, and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant ( p < 0.05). Sensitivity, specificity, and AUC of f-DTV were slightly lower than those of SBR_Bolt (71%, 79%, and 0.81, respectively, for f-DTV, and 81%, 84%, 0.88, respectively, for SBR_Bolt). The difference in AUC between f-DTV and SBR_Bolt was not statistically significant. Conclusions This study demonstrates the utility of f-DTV as a novel quantitative index for evaluating the three-dimensional volume of functional dopamine transporters, and that f-DTV has almost the same diagnostic ability to differentiate dNDD from non-dNDD using DAT SPECT.