Trip To National Institute Of Health

[Guest guest]

A visit to NIH, Bethesda, MD.

My wife the patient and I just returned from a 4 day visit to NIH. She was selected to participate in a study based on the use PET with F-dopamine to distinguish between MSA, PD and Autonomic Disease(AD). It was a very thorough test program with the NIH treatment of patient being excellent. The basic theory used by Dr. Goldstein of the Neuro-Cardiology NINDS Group is that nerve ending from the brain to the heart are impaired by PD but are intact for MSA. Of course because of the research many other tests were done besides the PET to make sure the results were valid. Although we will not have the final results for about 10 days the PET indicated my wife has MSA not PD. If Dr. Goldstein 's theory is correct it opens the way for a definitive test to distinquish between PD, AD and MSA. While not the cure we have all been looking for and perhaps not a practical everyday test, it is more knowledge and information that may help the researchers.

When I get the final report I will provide more information.

AL