Study Says Scans Can Diagnose Parkinson’s

A PET brain scan can diagnose types of “parkinsonian” disease, new research finds. The study looked at the brains of 167 people. All had signs of what could be Parkinson’s disease. But two other diseases can have similar symptoms. PET stands for positron emission tomography. PET scans use small amounts of a radioactive chemical to produce images of the body’s functions. Researchers said the scans accurately showed whether a person had Parkinson’s disease or a similar disease. The journal Lancet Neurology published the study online. HealthDay News wrote about it January 11.