Advantages of cerebral blood perfusion SPECT applied to the infants and children

We discussed the advantages of cerebral blood perfusion SPECT applied to the infants and children under five years of age, compared with clinical, CT and MRI findings. Although there remain some problems to be solved in the technical aspect for infants and children, cerebral blood perfusion SPECT can reveal local abnormalities in the early phase, while CT and MRI have not yet visualized them. Although SPECT findings are not specific to each disease, severity and prognosis of disease may be estimated by the perfusion state in the penumbra region surrounding a vascular lesion as well as by the local blood flow rate. We conclude that cerebral blood perfusion SPECT are very useful for infants and children as well as for adults. (author)