Brain SPECT in neurology and psychiatry

Structural and functional images of the brain play an important role as pow erful adjuncts in the management of an increasing number of neurologic and psychiatric diseases. Brain SPECT, in particular, with perfusion agents or with neuroreceptor imaging radiopharmaceuticals, is rapidly becoming a clin ical tool in many places. For many neurologic and psychiatric conditions, t his imaging modality has been used in diagnosis, prognosis assessment, eval uation of response to therapy, risk stratification, detection of benign or malignant viable tissue, and choice of medical or surgical therapy. The imp ortance of this technique in nuclear medicine today should not be overlooke d, particularly in cerebrovascular diseases, dementias, epilepsy, head inju ry, malignant brain tumors, movement disorders, obsessive-compulsive disord er, Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome, schizophrenia, depression. panic diso rder, and drug abuse.