Error rates for the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease may approach 40 percent. In a presentation this week to the Parkinson's Action Network, Dr. Mark Hurtt, Chief Medical Officer of Boston Life Sciences, outlined some of the challenges of diagnosing Parkinson's disease. He cited published error rates for physicians that are most likely to diagnose PD. He pointed out that primary care physicians may misdiagnose PD 40 to 50 percent of the time. This is concerning, because primary care physicians are often the first doctors patients call when they develop a tremor or other symptom. Estimates of general neurologists error rates hover between 30 and 35 percent, when attempting to diagnose PD, while movement disorders specialists. For more information on the difference between primary care physicians, general neurologists and movement disorders specialists see our February 9 post.
Boston Life Sciences is in Phase III clinical trials, developing an imaging procedure that would help physicians diagnose PD more accurately. In this procedure the drug Altropane is injected into a patient. After the agent has traveled through the bloodstream into the brain, the patient submits to a single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) scan. A SPECT camera is an imaging machine somewhat similar to an MRI. As the Altropane emits radiation, the SPECT camera is able to measure activities in the brain indicative of the presence or absence of PD.
