Long-Term Dopamine Transporter Imaging and Clinical Assessment of Parkinson's Disease Progression

• To assess the rate of change in striatal [123I]ß-CIT uptake in a cohort of early Parkinson's disease patients
  

• To assess the effect of levodopa treatment on the rate of change in striatal [123I]ß-CIT uptake in a cohort of early Parkinson's disease patients
  
• To determine whether the rate of reduction in [123I]ß-CIT uptake in sequential SPECT imaging during a sixty month interval will correlate with the dopamine transporter density measured in the first scan
  
• To determine whether the rate of reduction in [123I]ß-CIT uptake in sequential SPECT imaging during a sixty month interval will correlate with changes in the clinical measures of severity of disease
  
• To determine cognitive changes in Parkinson's disease and correlate those changes with objective imaging measures of dopaminergic degeneration
  

All subjects will be imaged at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Disorders.

Subjects will be evaluated sequentially with [123I] ß-CIT SPECT and standardized clinical rating scales during a sixty month period. The subjects involved in this study will have had [123I]ß-CIT and SPECT scans at baseline, nine, eighteen and thirty-six months following the start of their participation in the ELLDOPA study. In this extension study the subjects will receive two additional scans, at forty-eight months and at sixty months following the start of their participation in the ELLDOPA study.

Before each SPECT procedure subjects will be tested to ensure eligibility for the study. They will also have a neurological evaluation including tests of motor function, thinking, memory and handwriting. Some of these tests will be given with the aid of a computer.

On the first day participants are injected with [123I]ß CIT, an investigational radioactive material that localizes in the brain. Study participants will also have a thorough neurologic examination and standard neuropsychological testing, including testing of memory, concentration, abstraction and visual spatial functions.

Twenty-four hours later study participants return to the Institute for Neurodegenerative Disorders where an investigational scanning procedure will be used to obtain SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) images of the brain.