SPET brain imaging with 201 diethyldithiocarbamate in acute ischaemic stroke.
Thirty-five patients with acute ischaemic stroke were studied within 24 h after hospital admission with thallium 201 diethyldithiocarbamate single photon emission tomography (201Tl-DDC SPET) and X-ray computed tomography (CT). 201Tl-DDC is a non-redistributing agent that allows postponed imaging after early administration and early therapeutic intervention. In 16 patients both investigations were performed within 24 h after stroke onset. The sensitivity of SPET was 94% and of CT 81% in the first 24 h, when hypodensity and obliteration of sulci were used as CT reading criteria. When only hypodensity was used as a criterion, the sensitivity of CT was 50% in this group. Sensitivity of CT compared with SPET became increasingly better in patients with older infarcts (1-18 days). In two-thirds of patients, the lesion demonstrated on SPET was larger than that on CT, and this was especially so with older infarcts. Crossed cerebellar diaschisis occurred in 69% of patients. The high sensitivity of 201Tl-DDC SPET in the first 24 h after ischaemic stroke and the favourable properties of this radiopharmaceutical make it a method of interest in the assessment of initial perfusion defects in early experimental stroke therapies.
de Bruïne
J F
JF
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Academisch Medisch Centrum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Limburg
M
M
van Royen
E A
EA
Hijdra
A
A
Hill
T C
TC
van der Schoot
J B
JB
D000368:Aged; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D004050:Ditiocarb; D006801:Humans; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes; D013997:Time Factors; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes; D004050:Ditiocarb