A study of cerebral circulation in elderly patients with dementia using 123I-IMP SPECT

In order to elucidate the pathogenesis of senile dementia of Alzheimer type (SDAT) and multi-infarct dementia (MID), 18 age-matched controls, 22 SDAT cases, 10 MID cases, and 15 multiple infarction without dementia (MI) cases, totaling 65 cases, were enrolled into a study of cerebral blood flow using single photon emission CT (SPECT) with N-isopropyl-p-[123I]iodoamphetamine (IMP). The diagnosis of dementia was made based on the clinical history, findings of brain CT, MRI, and Hachinski's ischemic score. Lateral asymmetric perfusion was evaluated by using the asymmetry index (AI). Quantitative cerebral blood flow was analyzed by using the venous blood sampling method with IMP SPECT. Cerebral infarction, ischemic changes, and brain atrophy were diagnosed by CT and MRI. mCBF values were significantly lower in SDAT and MID than in those of controls, while rCBF values were lowest at the frontal lobes in MID and at the parietal lobes in SDAT. Hasegawa's dementia score was correlated with the rCBF at the frontal lobes in MID. In MID, there was a greater number of infarction, and atrophic changes were significantly remarkable, while the rCBF values were significantly lower at the frontal lobes compared to the MI group. Multi-variate analysis suggested that among the factors contributing to MID, brain atrophy was most relevant to dementia. In SDAT, rCBF values showed the most lateral asymmetry at the parietal lobes, the least, at the occipital lobes. The lateral asymmetry of the cerebral blood flow at the parietal lobes showed an association with clinical symptoms. There was a negative coefficiency between the cerebellum and the cerebral hemisphere in the evaluation of lateral asymmetry. These results suggest that rCBF estimation by IMP SPECT is useful in the differential diagnosis between MID and SDAT, and may also contribute to the classification of these two diseases. (author)