MR relative cerebral blood flow mapping of Alzheimer disease: correlation with Tc-99m HMPAO SPECT.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the value of magnetic resonance (MR) perfusion imaging for diagnosis of Alzheimer disease (AD), the authors compared relative cerebral blood flow (CBF) maps obtained with MR perfusion imaging and technetium-99m hexamethyl-propyleneamine oxime (HMPAO) single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in patients with AD.


METHODS
Eight patients with AD were studied with MR perfusion imaging and HMPAO SPECT. The relative CBF maps from the two techniques were spatially coregistered, and relative CBF values in 13 cerebral gray matter regions (total, 26 regions of interest) were compared with regression analysis. To evaluate the degree of deviation of each brain region from the regression line, a P value for the residual was calculated for each region.


RESULTS
A significant overall correlation was seen between the relative CBF values produced by the two techniques (r = .68, P < .0001). Smaller P values for the residuals were obtained in the anterior cingulate cortex (P = .05) and posterior cingulate cortex (P < .001), indicating larger deviations in these regions. When data from these two regions were eliminated, the correlation coefficient rose to 0.80 (P < .0001).


CONCLUSIONS
Despite fairly large discrepancies in the anterior and posterior cingulate cortices, the relative CBF map obtained with MR imaging is generally in close agreement with the HMPAO SPECT map, suggesting that MR perfusion imaging can provide clinically useful information regarding CBF abnormalities in patients with AD.
Yoshiura
Takashi
T
Department of Clinical Radiology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan.
Mihara
Futoshi
F
Kuwabara
Yasuhiro
Y
Ogomori
Koji
K
Kaneko
Koichiro
K
Tanaka
Atsuo
A
Sasaki
Masayuki
M
Nakagawa
Makoto
M
Koga
Hirofumi
H
Yamanaka
Takeharu
T
Masuda
Kouji
K
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020768:Middle Cerebral Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D011859:Radiography; D012039:Regional Blood Flow / Q000502:physiology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D019690:Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
D019690:Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime