Table 1.
Methodological aspects of all included trials.
| Author | Number of patients (exclusive controls) (1) | Study methodology (2) | Patiënt selection consequetive | Golden standard (3) | Clinical daignostic criteria clearly described? | Minimal duration follow-up after scan (month) | Radiotracer: pre- or postsynaptic or both | Name of radiotracer (4) | SPECT judged visually, template or drawn (5) | Part of striatum judged (6) | Cut-off point of 2 sd's taken by the authors? | Drug stopped appropriate before SPECT? (7) | SPECT judged blindly for clinical diagnoses? |
| Asenbaum '98 | 61 | II, III | - | cc | yes | - | pre | beta | m | striatum | 2sd | yes | yes |
| Benamer '00 | 185 | II | - | cc | yes | - | pre | fpcit | t | striatum | - | yes | yes |
| Booij '01 | 20 | I | - | cf | yes | 24 | pre | fpcit | t | striatum | 2sd | - | yes |
| Buck '95 | 23 | II | - | cc | yes | - | post | ibf | t | striatum | 2sd | - | - |
| Eerola '05 | 135 | I | yes | cf | yes | 24 | pre | beta | m | striatum | - | yes | - |
| Gerschlager '02 | 33 | II | - | cc | yes | - | pre | beta | m | striatum | - | yes | - |
| Haapaniemi '01 | 29 | III | - | cf | yes | 24 | pre | beta | t | striatum | - | yes | yes |
| Huang '01 | 34 | III | - | cc | yes | - | pre | beta | m | putamen | - | yes | - |
| Kim '02 | 31 | II | - | cc | yes | - | both | beta/ibf | t | c-putamen | - | yes | yes |
| Laere V '04 | 62 | III | yes | . | - | . | pre | fp/tr | t | c-putamen | - | yes | - |
| Lee '99 | 26 | II | - | cc | yes | - | pre | ipt | m | striatum | - | yes | - |
| Lokkegaard '02 | 72 | I | yes | cf | yes | 14 | pre | beta | t | striatum | - | - | yes |
| Lu '04 | 85 | II | - | cc | yes | - | pre | trodat | t | c-putamen | - | - | yes |
| Messa '98 | 18 | II | - | cc | yes | - | pre | beta | m | c-pc | - | - | - |
| Muller '98 | 24 | III | - | dd | yes | - | pre | beta | m | striatum | - | yes | yes |
| Oertel '93 | 67 | II | - | fd | - | 3 | post | ibzm | t | striatum | 2sd | yes | - |
| Oyanagi '02 | 13 | II | - | cc | yes | - | post | ibf | t | striatum | - | yes | - |
| Pirker '97 | 19 | II | - | cc | yes | - | post | epide | m | striatum | - | yes | - |
| Pirker '00 | 78 | II | - | cc | yes | - | pre | beta | m | striatum | - | yes | - |
| Pirker '02 | 51 | II | - | cc | yes | - | pre | beta | m | striatum | - | yes | yes |
| Plotkin '05 | 57 | II | yes | cc | yes | - | both | fp/ibzm | t | putamen | - | yes | yes |
| Rooyen v '93 | 21 | II | - | cc | - | - | posr | ibzm | m | striatum | - | yes | - |
| Schelvsky '93 | 44 | II | yes | dd | - | - | post | ibzm | t | striatum | - | - | - |
| Schwarz '98 | 65 | I | - | fd | yes | 24 | post | ibzm | t | striatum | 2sd | yes | yes |
| Schwarz '94 | 20 | II | - | cc | - | - | post | ibzm | t | striatum | - | - | - |
| Schwarz '00 | 28 | III | - | dd | yes | - | pre | ipt | t | striatum | - | - | - |
| Schwarz '97 | 55 | I | - | fd | - | 24 | post | ibzm | t | striatum | 2sd | - | yes |
| Schwarz '93 | 62 | I | yes | fd | - | 4 | post | ibzm | m | striatum | 2sd | yes | yes |
| Seppi '04 | 32 | II | yes | cc | yes | - | post | ibzm | m | striatum | 2sd | yes | - |
| Stoffers '05 | 70 | I | - | cf | yes | 36 | pre | beta | t | c-pc | 2sd | yes | - |
| Tatsch '91 | 42 | II | - | cc | - | - | post | ibzm | t | striatum | 2sd | yes | - |
| Vlaar '06 | 147 | I | yes | cf | yes | 3 | both | fp/ibzm | t | putamen | 2sd | yes | yes |
- means "no" or information not clearly mentioned by the authors
1) Number of patients of particular studied included in meta-analysis. Healthy controls and patients with diseases not relevant or inconclusive diagnosis for this study are not counted.
2) Study methodology
I = patients with diagnostic uncertainty. Diagnostic accuracy of SPECT was determined with a surrogate gold standard
II = cross sectional study of already diagnosed patient categories
III = early PD vs. normalcy
3) cf = clinical criteria after follow-up
cc = clinical criteria without follow-up
dd = effect dopaminergic drugs or apomorphine test
fd = clinical criteria after follow-up & effect dopaminergic drugs or apomorphine test
4) beta = Iodine-123-beta-CIT (beta-CIT), fpcit = Iodine-123-Ioflupane (FP-CIT), tr = Iodine-123-IPT and 99mCT-TRODAT-1.
ibzm = 123I-iodobenzamide (IBZM), ibf = Iodine-123-Iodobenzofuran (IBF), epide = Iodine-123-epidepride.
5) t = region of interest determined with template
m = region of interest manually encircled
6) bg = basale ganglia or striatum, put = putamen, cp = contralateral putamen, cpc = contralateral putamen/caudate ratio
7) Yes if: drugs with interference with radiotracer were stopped appropriately or if the subjects did not use dopaminergic drugs at the moment of the spect.
(-) if this information was not given or if dopaminergic drugs seemed not to be stopped appropriately.