Cerebral perfusion impairment in a patient with toluene abuse.
We report the case of a 17-yr-old man diagnosed as a toluene abuser. He had an 8-mo history of toluene inhalation exposure and was admitted to this hospital with symptoms of auditory and visual hallucination. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed no structural abnormalities both on T1- and T2-weighted images, whereas SPECT using 99mTc-ethyl cysteinate dimer (ECD) showed multifocally decreased perfusion in the cerebral cortex, basal ganglia and thalami. Our case indicates that SPECT detects early central nervous system injury from toluene inhalation even when neurological examination and neuroanatomic imaging such as MRI are normal.
Ryu
Y H
YH
Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Lee
J D
JD
Yoon
P H
PH
Jeon
P
P
Kim
D I
DI
Shin
D W
DW
D000293:Adolescent; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D003545:Cysteine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D014050:Toluene; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D014050:Toluene; C059659:technetium Tc 99m bicisate; D003545:Cysteine