Patient Preparation
Antiparkinsonian drugs that act on the postsynaptic receptors do not affect the specific uptake of TRODAT-l. and so patients can be studied while taking their usual medications.
Antiparkinsonian therapy have showed no significant effect on striatal -CIT uptake (1).
Patients should withdraw drugs like central nervous system stimulants (amphetamine, sympathomimetics including some nasal decongestants) for 4 weeks to prevent interaction.
Drugs that act on presynaptic transporters have to be discontinued (at least for 7 half-lives before study, e.g. tricyclic antidepressants, e.g. amitriptyline, imipramine, etc). Serotonin reuptake inhibitors have to be considered especially due to their long half-lives (e.g. fluoxetine) (2).
References:
1 Marshall, Vicky and Grosset, Donald. Role of Dopamine Transporter Imaging in Routine Clinical Practice. Movement Disorders Vol. 18, No. 12, 2003, pp. 1415–1423.
2 P.
David Mozley, Jay S. Schneider, Paul D. Acton, Karl Plossl, Matthew B. Stem,
Andrew Siderowf, Norman A. Leopold, Pei Yong Li, Abass Alavi, and Hank F. Kung.
Binding of [99mTc]TRODAT-1 to Dopamine Transporters in Patients with Parkinson's
Disease and in Healthy Volunteers.J Nucl Med 2000; 41: 584-589.