ACTIVATION PET SCANNING IN PRETREATMENT EVALUATION OF PATIENTS WITH CEREBRAL-TUMORS OR VASCULAR-LESIONS IN OR CLOSE TO THE SENSORIMOTOR CORTEX

Treatment of rumours and vascular lesions in or close to eloquent cort ex may inflict neurological deficits. Intra-operative mapping procedur es have been used for many decades in efforts to minimize neurological sequelae. The possibility for non-invasive pre-operative brain mappin g has emerged with the advent of positron emission tomography (PET). I n this paper we report on 11 patients with a tumour or vascular lesion in or close to the sensorimotor(10 patients) or visual cortex (one pa tient). The patients were subjected to activation PET scanning by mean s of vibrotactile or visual stimulation. The results show that in most of the patients the important relation between the lesion and the sen sorimotor cortex could be determined. The patient with a lesion in the occipital lobe had involvement of the entire visual cortex as judged by comparison with activated areas on the nonlesion side.