No differences are seen in the regional cerebral blood flow in the restricting type of anorexia nervosa compared with the binge eating/purging type.
OBJECTIVE
Anorexia nervosa (AN) is subdivided into the restricting type (AN-R) and the binge-eating/purging type (AN-BP), but differences in cerebral blood flow between patients with these types of AN and healthy controls have not been investigated.


METHODS
The present study was designed to elucidate any such differences using resting single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) studies to compare the differences in cerebral perfusion among both types of AN and a healthy control group. Resting regional cerebral blood flow was assessed using SPECT with technetium-99m hexamethylpropyleneamine oxime in 13 female AN-R patients, 13 female AN-BP patients, and 10 healthy women as controls with 3-D stereotactic surface projections.


RESULTS
The analytic program of the SPECT images showed bilateral decreased perfusion of the subcallosal gyrus (SCG), midbrain and posterior cingulate gyrus (PCG) in both AN-R and AN-BP patients, as compared with the controls. There were no clear differences between the AN-R and AN-BP groups. There were no significant differences in cerebral blood flow between patients with AN-R and AN-BP.


CONCLUSIONS
Abnormalities of the neuronal circuits containing the SCG, midbrain and PCG are possibly relevant to trait-related AN.
Yonezawa
Harufumi
H
Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, Hiroshima Prefectural Hospital, Japan.
Otagaki
Yoko
Y
Miyake
Yoshie
Y
Okamoto
Yasumasa
Y
Yamawaki
Shigeto
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply*; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000098:blood supply / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000098:blood supply / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008636:Mesencephalon / Q000098:blood supply / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D012016:Reference Values; D012039:Regional Blood Flow / Q000502:physiology; D019690:Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
D019690:Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime