99m Tc HMPAO Brain SPECT in Patients with Diffuse Axonal Injury.

Kim, Tea Young; Moon, Jea Gon; Bae, Sang Kyun; Lee, Hwa Dong; Hwang, Yong Soon

Original Article

Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society 1996;25(1): 144-149.

Tea Young Kim, Jea Gon Moon, Sang Kyun Bae, Hwa Dong Lee, Yong Soon Hwang

¹Department of Neurosurgery, Kosin Medical College, Pusan, Korea.
²Department of Nuclear Medicine, Kosin Medical College, Pusan, Korea.

ABSTRACT

This study was performed in order to compare the functional imaging by 99m Tc-HMPAO brain SPECT with structural neuroimaging by CT or MRI. Eighteen patients with diffuse axonal injury underwent HMPAO brain SPECT(18), CT(9) and MR(14), and neurological status were then evaluated. Seventeen patients(94%) were revealed abnormal SPECT whereas nine patients(50%) demonstrated abnormal CT compared with ten patients(71%) demonstrated abnormal MRI. The neurololgical deficits correlated well with abnormal SPECT lesion except in one case. It is therefore concluded that brain perfusion SPECT is not only more sensitive than CT or MRI, it is also more cost effective and clinically well correlated in diffuse axonal injury patient.

Key Words: Diffuse axonal injury; SPECT