Nucl Med Mol Imaging.  2007 Dec;41(6):530-537.

Differences of Tc-99m HMPAO SPECT Imaging in the Early Stage of Subcortical Vascular Dementia Compared with Alzheimer's Disease

• Park KW
• Kang DY
• Park MJ
• Cheon SM
• Cha JK
• Kim SH
• Kim JW

Abstract

PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to assess the specific patterns of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in patients with the early stage of subcortical vascular dementia (SVaD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) using Tc-99m HMPAO SPECT, and to compare the differences between the two conditions.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Sixteen SVaD, 46 AD and 12 control subjects participated in this study. We included the patients with SVaD and AD according to NINCDS-ADRDA and NINDS-AIREN criteria. They were all matched for age, education and clinical dementia rating scores. Three groups were evaluated by Tc-99m HMPAO SPECT using statistical parametric mapping (SPM) for measuring rCBF. The SPECT data of patients with SVaD and AD were compared with those of normal control subjects and then compared with each other.
RESULTS
SPM analysis of the SPECT image showed significant perfusion deficits on the right temporal region and thalamus, left insula and superior temporal gyrus, both cingulate gyri and frontal subgyri in patients with SVaD and on the left supramarginal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, postcentral gyrus and inferior parietal lobule, right fugiform gyrus and both cingulate gyri in AD compared with control subjects (uncorrected p<0.01). SVaD patients revealed significant hypoperfusion in the right parahippocampal gyrus with cingulated gyrus, left insula and both frontal subgyral regions compared with AD (uncorrected p<0.01).
CONCLUSION
Our study shows characteristic and different pattern of perfusion deficits in patients with SVaD and AD, and these results may be helpful to discriminate the two conditions in the early stage of illness.

Keyword

subcortical vascular dementia; Alzheimer's disease; statistical parametric mapping analysis; cerebral perfusion SPECT

MeSH Terms

Alzheimer Disease*
Dementia
Dementia, Vascular*
Education
Humans
Parahippocampal Gyrus
Perfusion
Rabeprazole
Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime*
Thalamus
Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon*
Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime