Rinsho Shinkeigaku (Clinical Neurology)

The 45th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Neurology

Advance of SPECT: Differential diagnosis and evaluation of pathophysiology of neurodegenerative disorders

Yasuo Kuwabara, M.D.

Department of Radiology, Kyushu University Hospital

Development of the new radiopharmaceuticals and the statistical analysis techniques for the brain SPECT were reviewed. Both 123I-β-CIT and 123I-FPCIT SPECT demonstrate the neuronal degeneration of the presynaptic dopaminergic system. The preclinical trials are on-going for the differentiation between essential tremor and Parkinsonian patients. 123I-iomazenil was approved by the Japanese Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare in Aril 2004, only for the use of epileptic patients considered surgical treatment. Both SPM and 3D-SSP are powerful techniques for statistical analysis of the brain perfusion SPECT. They are helpful for the detection of the functional alteration in neurodegenerative disorders, and useful for the differentiation between the Parkinsonian patients, including PD, MSA, PSP and CBD. Hypoperfusion in the posterior cingulated cortex can be also easily demonstrated by these techniques in Alzheimer's disease. 3D-SRT is a technique using the anatomical standardization and ROI template consisting 636 ROIs for the whole brain. Although this technique was originally developed for the evaluation of the acetazolamide test, it can be used for the evaluation of the perfusion pattern in neurodegenerative disorders.

(CLINICA NEUROL, 44: 894|896, 2004)
key words: SPECT, neurodegenerative disorders, dopamine transporter, statistical analysis of the images

(Received: 14-May-04)