Regional cerebral blood flow in vascular depression assessed by 123I-IMP SPECT.
OBJECTIVE
As the prevalence of white matter hyperintensities detected on T2 weighted MRI scans in patients with late-onset depression is higher than that in nondepressed patients, the concept of"vascular depression" (VDep) was introduced in 1997. However, the pathology of vascular depression has not been clarified. This study examined the differences in functional imaging between vascular and non-vascular depression (non-VDep).


METHODS
We utilized (123)I-IMP single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) to compare regional cerebral blood flows (rCBF) between 9 patients with VDep (Krishnan criteria) and 11 age- and sex-matched patients with non-VDep in both depressed and remitted states.


RESULTS
In both VDep and non-VDep patients, mean rCBF increased significantly as depression improved, partially aided by changes in left anterior temporal blood flow. In addition, compared to non-VDep patients, the left anterior frontal rCBF for VDep patients was significantly lower in both depressed and remitted states.


CONCLUSIONS
Left anterior temporal rCBF therefore appears to represent a state marker that increases as symptoms associated with late-onset depression improve, regardless of vascular changes. Furthermore, in VDep patients, left anterior frontal rCBF was low in both states compared to non-VDep patients, and might not only represent a trait marker, but also correlated with the duration of disease and likelihood of recurrence and relapse.
Kimura
Mahito
M
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan. mkimura@med.email.ne.jp
Shimoda
Kengo
K
Mizumura
Sunao
S
Tateno
Amane
A
Fujito
Tatsuma
T
Mori
Takao
T
Endo
Shunkichi
S
D000368:Aged; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020367:Iofetamine; D008297:Male; D012039:Regional Blood Flow / Q000502:physiology; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
D020367:Iofetamine