Dopa PET Scan Brain Test, Procedure and Cost

In this nuclear medicine scan, it would use only a small amount of the radioactive.
material injected into the vein of the individual and it would travel through your
body to your brain and understand and detect to look at how well would the
brain be working. The tracer would bind to the certain cells in brain that would
use Dopamine.
To take the pictures of your tracer in brain, a special camera would be used.

The resultant values of the tests In the Sensitivity of the test, the following
values are seen as 95.4% (95% CI: 100%-75.3%), the Specificity 100% (95% CI:
100%-59.0%), the PPV of 100% (95% CI 100%-80.7%), and the NPV of 87.5% (95%
CI: 99.5%-50.5%).

There are no absolute contraindications for the PET scan. This study might not be suited for the pregnant women. The benefits versus the risks should be discussed with Nuclear Medicine Specialist.

This scan also captures the images of an activity of brain after the radioactive
“tracers” are absorbed into your bloodstream. These tracers are said to be
“attached” to compounds for example-glucose (sugar).

The Glucose is considered to be principal fuel of brain. The active areas of your brain would be utilizing glucose at a higher rate than the inactive areas.

Classically, it is seen that l-DOPA increases the production of the Dopamine (DA) in the DOPAminergic neurons, while in contradiction inhibiting firing of these neurons due to the activation of the D2 auto receptors by the extracellular released DA.

Use of this levoDOPA is also further contraindicated with any concurrent use of the monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) because it can further lead to the hypertensive crisis. There should also be a 14-day washout period when you are switching from the levoDOPA to an MAOI or even vice versa.

Major drawback of your PET scan is that it is substantially lower resolution than, for example, that of the CT and the MRI, and the PET is generally considered to be poor at also delineating any anatomic detail.

The abnormal cells in the patient’s body would use a lot of glucose and would also appear as the "hot spots." The Cancer cells are considered to be highly metabolic and also use a lot of the sugar. That's why this test is also considered to be useful to aid in diagnosing and staging of the cancer. PET scans do not generally diagnose cancer; they would only depict the areas of any abnormal uptake of your tracer material.

The Positron emission tomography or (PET) is a highly sensitive technology that uses the radioactive substance to also show the chemical and functional changes within your brain. The Chemical and the functional changes would not hence be seen by any other imaging methods, such as the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or the computed tomography (CT).

Patients can go for the Dopa Brain PET Scan test if the doctor suspects brain disorders like dementia, parkinsons syndrome, Alzheimer's disease etc.

Any abnormality in the Dopa Brain PET Scan test scan will be discussed with the patient by a healthcare expert and the patient will be provided with the future course of action for the same.

There are no such risks associated with a Dopa Brain PET Scan test when conducted in the presence of a healthcare expert and at a good healthcare facility with proper guidelines and protocols.

The price of a Dopa Brain PET Scan test in Delhi NCR typically ranges from INR 18,500 to INR 37000 in Delhi NCR. 

Patients can type the Dopa Brain PET Scan test near me in Google search for the nearest centres available.