A Study Comparing SPECT with MRI in Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury

Kim, Young Chul

Abstract

In this study, the author tried to compare the efficiency of SPECT with that of MRI in evaluation of neuropsychiatric sequelae after traumatic brain injury(TBI). Fifty-one patients who were referred from the court for the purpose of assessment of neurobehavioral disability after TBI for 18 months from Jan, 1997 to Jun. 1998 were reviewed. The results were as follows: 1) SPECT was more effective to find out brain abnormality than MRI because 27 of 51 patients (52.9%) showed abnormal findings on SPECT but 11(21.6%) on MRI(p<0.05). 2) There were no abnormal findings on SPECT even three of the patients showed abnormality on MRI. 3) The use of electroencephalogram(EEG) was not a helpful method to evaluate abnormal brain function in patients with chronic sequelae after TBI. 4) The relationship between education level and laboratory findings of MRI and SPECT was not found. These results suggest that SPECT alone or combination with MRI would be helpful to find out abnormal brain function efficiently in patients with sequale after TBI.