DaTSCAN Imaging in Aging and Neurodegenerative Disease

I-123 Ioflupane solution for injection into a living test subject. The iodine introduced during manufacture is a radioactive isotope, I-123, and it is the properties of this isotope that makes the solution visible to a gamma camera on SPECT imaging. I-123 has a half-life of approximately 13 hours and a gamma photon energy of 159 keV making it an good radionuclide for medical imaging. DaTscan is administered by intravenous cannula. The scan is carried out 3-6 hours post injection.

Single-photon emission computed tomography(SPECT)is a nuclear medicine tomographic imaging technique using gamma rays. It is very similar to conventional nuclear medicine planar imaging using a gamma camera. However, it is able to provide true 3D information. This information is typically presented as cross-sectional slices through the patient, but can be freely reformatted or manipulated as required.