Diagnosis

Diagnosis can be very difficult. As far as the condition is concerned, there is not truly one investigation that can categorically determine that this is Parkinson's disease. Diagnosis is made by a specialist, hopefully, and a good history from the patient, of basically their experiences, what they are having difficulty with, their problems that they're encountering, but also a physical examination. But a saying that, diagnosis can take quite some time to actually come to fruition purely because the depletion of dopamine is not one sudden depletion. This is a gradual process as the condition is a progressive neurological condition. So, the dopamine is depleting slowly over a course of time, so symptoms might not be evident, initially, and therefore would need time for the specialist to make the diagnosis. The specialist might arrange an MRI scan, magnetic resonance imaging scan of the brain. This is not a diagnostic tool, however, what they do use it for is to rule out anything else that could be impacting on, or a reason for some of these symptoms, but it is purely to rule out anything else that might be going on.

Another investigation that might be ordered, although is not done commonly, is what we call a DAT scan, that is a dopamine scan, primarily used more so for those patients that the actual presentation is not really that clear or maybe a younger person, where you are not expecting this diagnosis in that age group, they might have to then be put forward for a DAT scan or dopamine scan. Saying that even the DAT scan is not 100% confirmation, but it does then give some more information in relation to the actual diagnosis.