Medical rehabilitation approach to severely handicapped persons, 1

To evaluate the severity of the handicap, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) findings were studied. There was a clear relationship between severity of the handicap and the abnormality of SPECT findings. Furthermore the relation was more evident when we investigated the cases with SPECT abnormality which showed more than half of the brain. When we indicated the severity of the handicap by using an activity of daily living, the relationship between brain functions and SPECT findings was evident. We concluded that SPECT would be a very useful method for the evaluation of brain function of severely handicapped persons. (author)