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from yahoo : http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000803/hl/parkinsons_1.html Thursday August 3 5:39 PM ET Company to Launch Test for Parkinson's in Europe By Richard Woodman LONDON (Reuters Health) - The world's first diagnostic test for Parkinson's disease has won European marketing approval and will be launched in the autumn, Nycomed Amersham announced. The new test, DaTSCAN, is expected to cost around 500 to 600 but should transform the present situation where up to 25% of patients diagnosed as suffering from Parkinson's actually have Essential Tremor, company sources said. The iodine-labelled agent binds to the dopamine transporters on the neurons in the brain. The number of these neurons, and therefore the number of dopamine transporters, is significantly reduced in Parkinson's disease. ``There are around 500,000 Parkinson's disease sufferers across Europe, with 60,000 new cases diagnosed every year,'' the company said in a news release. ``DaTSCAN is the world's first diagnostic agent approved for use in identification of Parkinson's. Currently the only objective test for Parkinson's disease is performed post mortem.'' John Padfield, chief executive of the imaging division, said: ``We have managed to bring a truly unique product to the market that will satisfy unmet medical needs and benefit thousands of patients who may be suffering from Parkinson's Disease.'' A company spokeswoman told Reuters Health that in a clinical trial involving 250 patients, the results of the scan were different to the clinical diagnosis in ten cases. ``In five of those cases, the clinicians changed their diagnosis. In five further cases, they decided to continue monitoring the patient.'' _____________________________________________________________________________ http://geocities.yahoo.com.au - Yahoo! Australia & NZ GeoCities - Build your own Web Site - for free!