Neuronal impairment of adult moyamoya disease detected by quantified proton MRS and comparison with cerebral perfusion by SPECT with Tc-99m HM-PAO: Atrial of clinical quantification of metabolites

We evaluated neuronal impairment of adult moyamoya patients by proton magne tic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and cerebral perfusion scintigraphy, After evaluating two methods for compensating relaxation times, we selected a lo ng TR, short TE sequence to achieve better reproducibility. The cerebral bl ood now (CBF) value was measured by scintigraphy following the method of qu antification reported in the previous literature. N-acetyl aspartate (NAA) concentrations and CBFs value were decreased statistically (P < 0.05) compa red with those of the age-matched normal controls, However, the decreased r ate of NAA concentration was changed more than the CBF value, and no linear correlation was found between the two values. We considered that the NAA c oncentration was not always correlated with that of the present cerebral pe rfusion. The NAA concentration showed a more dispersive distribution in pat ients than in controls, indicating a large individual variation in neuronal impairment. We concluded that proton MRS may provide useful information ab out neuronal impairment in individual patients. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.