Constant blood flow reduction in premotor frontal lobe regions in ALS with dementia - a SPECT study with 3D-SSP.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES - We investigated the regional cerebral blood flow in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis with dementia (ALS-D) patients, using single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). MATERIALS AND METHODS - The (123)I-IMP SPECT data for 5 ALS-D and 16 ALS patients were analyzed using three-dimensional stereotactic surface projection (3D-SSP). RESULTS - 3D-SSP demonstrated marked prefrontal hypoperfusion in all the five ALS-D cases and significant bilateral prefrontal hypoperfusion in group comparisons. CONCLUSIONS - This study revealed prefrontal hypoperfusion in ALS-D cases to be an obvious abnormality with scientific objectivity.