TRANSIENT FRONTAL HYPOPERFUSION IN TC-99M HEXAMETHYLPROPYLENEAMINEOXIME SINGLE-PHOTON EMISSION COMPUTED-TOMOGRAPHY IMAGING DURING ALCOHOL-WITHDRAWAL

Background: Regional brain perfusion in patients during alcohol-withdr awal has been relatively less studied with brain SPECT technique. In t his study, the hypothesis that possible regional cerebral bloodflow (r CBF) alterations due to alcohol withdrawal might be transitory in a ho mogenous group of alcoholic patients in terms of their physical-nutrit ional and cognitive functional conditions was investigated. Methods: F ifteen right-handed male inpatients with alcohol-withdrawal, diagnosed according to DSM-IIIR criteria, and 6 male physically-mentally health y control subjects were included in the study. The first Technetium 99 m-hexamethylpropyleneamineoxime (Tc-99m-HMPAO) brain SPECT investigati on was performed on the day of admission in nonmedicated conditions an d the second one was performed after all the withdrawal symptoms had s ubsided ill the patients, As an indicator of the change in the brain p erfusion, a relative perfusion index was used and the relative tracer activity was expressed as the ratio of, mean cortical region of intere st activity to mean the whole cortical brain activity. Results: We fou nd significantly reduced left frontal and right frontal, parietal and temporal rCBF values in the patients during the alcohol-withdrawal com pared to those of their remitted stare while they were not different f rom in the control group (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Our data indicate th at the alterations in rCBF during the alcohol-withdrawal are more pron ounced both in the frontal cortex and in overall right hemisphere regi ons, Furthermore, the frontal hypoperfusion may be transitory with rec overy from alcohol-withdrawal whereas temporal hypoperfusion? may cont inue after recovery probably depending on the previously administered high-dose benzodiazepines. (C) 1998 Society of Biological Psychiatry.