title: Positron emission tomography demonstrates frontal cortex and basal ganglia hypometabolism in dystonia.
abstract: We studied 15 dystonic patients with positron emission tomography (PET) and (18F)-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG). The group comprised patients with focal (n = 5), multifocal (n = 1), and generalized (n = 4) dystonia as well as patients with hemidystonia (n = 5). The age at onset was during childhood in four, during adolescence in two, and during adulthood in nine of the subjects. In dystonic patients, global cerebral glucose metabolism was unaltered when compared with normal controls, whereas the pattern of regional cerebral metabolic rate for glucose (rCMR[Glu]) was significantly different (p = 0.0001). rCMR(Glu) was significantly decreased in the caudate and lentiform nucleus and in the frontal projection field of the mediodorsal thalamic nucleus. The study confirms the concept that dystonia is caused by impaired connections between the basal ganglia, the thalamus, and frontal association areas.
authors.affiliation: Universitätsklinik für Neurologie, Max-Planck-Institut für neurologische Forschung, Köln, Germany.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Karbe
authors.forename: V A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Holthoff
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rudolf
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Herholz
authors.forename: W D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Heiss
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000378:metabolism*; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D002648:Child; D004421:Dystonia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000378:metabolism*; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D014018:Tissue Distribution; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed; D014103:Torticollis / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D005947:Glucose