CEREBRAL PERFUSION IMPAIRMENT IN A PATIENT WITH TOLUENE ABUSE

We report the case of a 17-yr-old man diagnosed as a toluene abuser. H e had an 8-mo history of toluene inhalation exposure and was admitted to this hospital with symptoms of auditory and visual hallucination. M agnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed no structural abnormalities b oth on T1-and T2-weighted images, whereas SPECT using Tc-99m-ethyl cys teinate dimer (ECD) showed multifocally decreased perfusion in the cer ebral cortex, basal ganglia and thalami. Our case indicates that SPECT detects early central nervous system injury from toluene inhalation e ven when neurological examination and neuroanatomic imaging such as MR I are normal.