title: Altered relationships between rCBF in different brain regions of never-treated schizophrenics.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  of this study was to investigate the relations between regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) of different brain regions in acute schizophrenia and following neuroleptic treatment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-two never-treated, acute schizophrenic patients were examined with HMPAO brain SPECT and assessed psychopathologically, and reexamined following neuroleptic treatment (over 96.8 days) and psychopathological remission, rCBF was determined by region/cerebellar count quotients obtained from 98 irregular regions of interest (ROIs), summed up to 11 ROIs on each hemisphere. In acute schizophrenics, interregional rCBF correlations of each ROI to every other ROI were compared to the interregional correlations following neuroleptic treatment and to those of controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All significant correlations of rCBF ratios of different brain regions were exclusively positive in controls and patients. In controls, all ROIs of one hemisphere except the mesial temporal ROI correlated significantly to its contralateral ROI. Each hemisphere showed significant frontal-temporal correlations, as well as cortical-subcortical and some cortico-limbic. In contrast, in acute schizophrenics nearly every ROI correlated significantly with every other ROI, without a grouping or relation of the rCBF of certain ROIs as in controls. After neuroleptic treatment and clinical improvement, this diffuse pattern of correlations remained.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results indicate differences in the neuronal interplay between regions in schizophrenic and healthy subjects. In never-treated schizophrenics, diffuse interregional rCBF correlations can be seen as a sign of change and dysfunction of the systems regulating specificity and diversity of the neuronal functions. Neuroleptic therapy and psychopathologic remission showed no normalizing effect on interregional correlations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Aachen University of Technology, Germany.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Sabri
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Erkwoh
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schreckenberger
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Cremerius
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Owega
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dickmann
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schulz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zimny
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sass
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Buell
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D019690:Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D019690:Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime