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conference
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Volume 7, Issue 5 (Suppl)
J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism, an open access journal
ISSN: 2161-0460
Parkinson 2017
September 25-26, 2017
September 25-26, 2017 Chicago, USA
3
rd
International Conference on
Parkinson’s disease and Movement Disorders
Novel neuroimaging technique to study Parkinson’s disease
D
iagnosis of Parkinson’s disease is mostly clinical. As a result, it is difficult to make an accurate diagnosis at an early stage.
Because of the subjective nature of clinical diagnosis, many patients are misdiagnosed at an early stage. Because of this,
treatment gets delayed and the disease progression cannot be slowed down. It is therefore important to have a diagnostic
technique that helps us make an early diagnosis. A new imaging technique that we recently developed could be useful. The
technique called single scan dynamic molecular imaging technique (SDMIT) uses positron emission tomography (PET) to
detect, map and measure dopamine released acutely during a cognitive or behavioral processing. It exploits the competition
between dopamine and its receptor ligand for occupancy of the same receptor site. In this technique after patients are positioned
in the PET camera, a radio-labeled dopamine ligand is injected intravenously and the PET data acquisition started. These data
are used by a receptor kinetic model to detect, map and measure dopamine released dynamically in different brain areas.
The patients were asked to perform a behavioral or cognitive task while in the scanner and the amount of dopamine released
in different brain areas measured. By comparing this data with data acquired previously in age-matched healthy volunteers
during performance of a similar task, it is possible to determine whether dopamine neurotransmission is dysregulated in the
patients and whether the dysregulation is responsible for clinical symptoms. Finding of a significant dysregulation in dopamine
neurotransmission would confirm diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. Since this technique measures dopamine released under
conditions of cognitive and behavioral stress, it can detect changes at a very early stage, when dysregulation of dopamine
neurotransmission is not expressed at rest but manifests under conditions of cognitive/behavioral overload.
Biography
Rajendra D Badgaiyan, MD, is a psychiatrist and cognitive neuroscientist. He is Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Richmond
University Medical Center, and Professor of Psychiatry at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. He received formal training in psychiatry, psy-
chology, cognitive neuroscience, molecular imaging and neuroimaging. He was awarded the prestigious BK Anand National Research Prize in India and Solomon
Award of Harvard Medical School. His research is focused on the study of neural and neurochemical mechanisms that control human brain functions. He developed
the single scan dynamic molecular imaging technique (SDMIT) to detect, map, and measure neurotransmitters released acutely in the human brain during task
performance. This technique is now used in laboratories all over the world. Using this technique, he studies dopaminergic control of human cognition and behavior.
He is also interested in learning the nature of dysregulated dopamine neurotransmission in psychiatric and neuropsychiatric conditions. His research is funded by
NIMH, NINDS, VA, and various foundations. Previously he served in the faculty of Harvard Medical School, SUNY Buffalo and University of Minnesota. He has
published extensively in peer-reviewed journals.
badgaiyan@gmail.comRajendra D Badgaiyan
University of Richmond, USA
Rajendra D Badgaiyan, J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism 2017, 7:5 (Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2161-0460-C1-029