Dual head HIPDM SPECT imaging in the differential diagnosis of dementia with MR and CT correlation

Dual head SPECT brain imaging was performed in 25 patients with a clinical diagnosis of dementia approximately one-half hour after a 5mCi dose of high purity (p,5n) I-123 HIPDM (N,N,N'-Trimethyl-N'-(2-hydroxy-3-methyl-5-iodobenzyl)- 1,3-propane diamine). Tomographic reconstruction used a 30th order, moderate cutoff (0.2) Butterworth filter found previously to optimize low noise and conspicuity. Most patients had CT and MR imaging and some patients were studied more than once. In approximately one-half of patients referred with a diagnosis of dementia of the Alzheimer's type, SPECT results were consistent with multiple infarct dementia (MID). MR studies in most of these patients with MID demonstrated multiple white matter defects correlating with multiple gray matter defects seen with SPECT and consistent with angiogenic disease of the Binswanger's type. While CT demonstrated cortical abnormalities in some patients, the findings were often nonspecific with enlarged ventricles and widened sulci