REGIONAL CEREBRAL BLOOD-FLOW IN DRUG-NAIVE PATIENTS WITH DEPRESSION AND MANIA USING TC-99M HMPAO SINGLE-PHOTON EMISSION COMPUTERIZED-TOMOGRAPHY (SPECT)
Sm. Elhilu et al., REGIONAL CEREBRAL BLOOD-FLOW IN DRUG-NAIVE PATIENTS WITH DEPRESSION AND MANIA USING TC-99M HMPAO SINGLE-PHOTON EMISSION COMPUTERIZED-TOMOGRAPHY (SPECT), The European journal of psychiatry, 12(2), 1998, pp. 119-127
Tc-99m hexamethylpropylene amine-oxime (HMPAO) SPECT was used to compa
re regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in actue drug-naive twenty-one
depressed, thirteen manic and twenty-four schizophrenic patients. Of t
hose, eleven depressed, ten manics and twenty schizophrenics also had
computed tomography (CT) brain scaninng Only three patients, one depre
ssed and two schizophrenics showed CT abnormalities. Four depressed, f
our manics and six schizophrenics demonstrated hypoperfusion, and one
manic and one schizophrenic demonstrated hyperperfusion. One manic and
one schizophrenic demonstrated bilateral multiple focal lesions of hy
po- and hyper-perfusions. The results of this study showed rCBF in dep
ressed and manic patients to be mainly either normal or hypoperfused,
and did nor support the hypothesis of hypofrontality in drug-naive pat
ients with depression and schizophrenia. However, some support was obt
ained for the left lateralised reduction in CBF in some acute affectiv
ely disordered and schizophrenic patients. The functional rCBF changes
shown by SPECT in some patients in this study were not matched by str
uctural deficits on CT brain scans.