Parkinson’s and MSA – development of an accurate diagnostic test

This research was completed on 30 September 2005

Project Leader	Professor P D Griffiths FRCR, PhD, Professor M N J Paley PhD, FInstP and Dr R A Grünewald MA, DPhil, FRCP.
Location	Academic Department of Radiology, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield in conjunction with the Section of Neurology, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield.
Grant awarded	12 March 2001
Start date	1 October 2003
End date	30 September 2005
Grant amount	£66,373.00
Grant code	AP0878

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterised by movement disorders where patients become progressively slow, stiff and shaky. It affects 1 in every 100 of people over the age of 65 years and the cause is unknown. There is no accurate diagnostic test for PD and the clinical diagnostic criteria can result in almost 1 in 5 patients being wrongly diagnosed with PD when they have another condition with similar symptoms such as multiple system atrophy (MSA). Iron is essential for a number of brain processes but increased levels may be damaging, resulting in neurodegeneration. This team will employ brain scanning to determine whether brain iron content can be used as a measure of PD progression. The aim is to develop a diagnostic technique to distinguish PD from MSA before this is possible in the clinic and also to improve our understanding of the disease process.