title: Brain SPECT and the effect of cerebral angioplasty in delayed ischemia due to vasospasm.
abstract: Cerebral vasospasm is a major determinant of outcome after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Brain SPECT with 99mTc-HMPAO was obtained before and after cerebral angioplasty in 10 patients with delayed ischemia due to vasospasm. Eight patients had clinically evident neurologic improvement after the procedure. Visual interpretation and an internal-reference (cerebellum), manual, semi-quantitative region of interest (ROI) analysis revealed improvement of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in 9 out of 10. There were disagreements between the visual and ROI analysis in the two that did not improve clinically. For all 10, the average increase per anterior circulation vessel dilated (n = 17) was 8.8% by comparison of the corticocerebellar ratios. For the eight that improved, the average increase was 10.5%. Brain SPECT is valuable for evaluating delayed cerebral ischemia caused by vasospasm after SAH and is useful to document the changes in rCBF induced by angioplasty. It is possible that SPECT may be useful to detect critical reductions in perfusion before clinical deficits develop, thereby offering the potential to identify candidates for early treatment with angioplasty.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle 98104.
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Eskridge
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Newell
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Grady
authors.forename: W A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: R W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Dalley
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Loyd
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grothaus-King
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Young
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Winn
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000800:Angioplasty, Balloon; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D002546:Ischemic Attack, Transient / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009460:Neurologic Examination; D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds; D010091:Oximes; D013345:Subarachnoid Hemorrhage / Q000150:complications*; D019690:Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime; D013997:Time Factors; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
chemical_list: D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds; D010091:Oximes; D019690:Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime