title: Decreased cerebral blood flow in neuro-Behçet's syndrome patients with neuropsychiatric manifestations and normal magnetic resonance imaging--a preliminary report.
abstract: Involvement of the brain is one of the most important complications of Behçet's disease, but its diagnosis is difficult because of the lack of effective imaging tools. Therefore, technetium-99m ethyl cysteinate dimer (Tc-99m ECD) single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) of the brain was used to detect abnormal regional cerebral blood flow in patients with neuro-Behçet's syndrome (NBS). Tc-99m ECD brain SPECT was performed to detect hypoperfusion areas of the brain in 10 NBS patients with definite neuropsychiatric symptoms or signs and normal brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings. Tc-99m ECD brain SPECT demonstrated hypoperfusion areas of the brain in all of the 10 NBS patients. The parietal lobes were the most common areas with hypoperfusion lesions. Tc-99m ECD brain SPECT is a more sensitive and useful tool than brain MRI for detecting hypoperfusion areas of the brain in NBS patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, China Medical College Hospital, No 2, Yuh-Der Road, Taichung 404, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Wei-Shih
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Pai-Yi
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Chiu
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kao
authors.forename: Chon-Haw
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Cheng-Chun
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D003545:Cysteine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
chemical_list: D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; C059659:technetium Tc 99m bicisate; D003545:Cysteine