GE Healthcare is touting the results of a randomized study of DaTscan (ioflupane iodine-123 injection) SPECT in adult patients with a diagnosis of possible dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB).
The findings, presented at the 2013 American Academy of Neurology (AAN) meeting, indicate that DaTscan imaging significantly contributed to a change in diagnostic category and improved physician confidence in diagnosing these patients.
Physicians who had access to DaTscan images for their patients reported greater confidence in their diagnoses, which may enable them to make more appropriate treatment decisions and provide better support and advice to their patients, according to lead study author Dr. Zuzana Walker, from the Mental Health Sciences Unit at University College London.
The multicenter study included 23 centers in six European countries and compared 114 patients with possible DLB who underwent DaTscan SPECT with 56 control subjects.
After eight weeks, 61% of patients in the DaTscan imaging group had a change in diagnostic category, compared with 4% of patients in the control group. After 24 weeks, the percentages were 69% and 16% for the DaTscan and control groups, respectively.
In addition, physicians with access to DaTscan results said they were significantly more confident in their diagnoses at eight and 24 weeks of follow-up, compared with physicians of the control patients.
Clinicians also were more likely to change the diagnostic category if the DaTscan image was abnormal (82%) than if the result was normal (48%).
