Regional cerebral blood flow in depressed patients with white matter magnetic resonance hyperintensity.
BACKGROUND
Functional neuroimaging studies have consistently demonstrated decreased regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) or metabolism in the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, or anterior cingulate gyrus of depressed patients. On the other hand, white matter hyperintensity as defined by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been the most consistently replicated finding in structural neuroimaging studies on depression; however, these functional and structural neuroimaging findings of depression have not been well integrated. We aimed to clarify the possible associations of MRI-defined subcortical hyperintensities with rCBF changes in depressed patients.


METHODS
Twelve depressed patients with subcortical hyperintensities defined by MRI, 11 depressed patients without MRI hyperintensities, and 25 healthy volunteers underwent 99mTc ECD SPECT. Group comparisons of their rCBF and correlation analysis between MRI hyperintensity and rCBF in patients were performed with a voxel-based analysis using statistical parametric mapping (SPM) software.


RESULTS
Depressed patients showed decreased rCBF compared with control subjects in the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, and anterior cingulate gyrus whether subcortical hyperintensity existed or not; however, the patients with MRI hyperintensity showed decreased rCBF in the thalamus, basal ganglia, and brainstem in addition to cortical areas. Further, the score for white matter hyperintensity correlated negatively with rCBF in subcortical brain structures, including the thalamus and right basal ganglia.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study indicates that depressed patients with MRI hyperintensities may have dysfunction in subcortical brain structures in addition to dysfunction in the fronto-temporal cortical structures.
Oda
Kenji
K
Section of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Graduate School of MedicineTokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan.
Okubo
Yoshiro
Y
Ishida
Ryuji
R
Murata
Yuji
Y
Ohta
Katsuya
K
Matsuda
Tetsuya
T
Matsushima
Eisuke
E
Ichimiya
Tetsuya
T
Suhara
Tetsuya
T
Shibuya
Hitoshi
H
Nishikawa
Toru
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged