DAT Scans for Parkinson's Disease

The other imaging study, it's good to know about for Parkinsonism are DAT scans or dopamine transporter scans. With these studies, the radiologist is injecting a ligand that gets into the brain and binds to presynaptic dopamine transporters. The classic picture of Parkinsonism is that you have decreased uptake more on one side of the brain than the other corresponding to the symptoms. It's important to remember that DAT scans don't differentiate Parkinson's disease from other neurodegenerative forms of Parkinsonism.