rCBF/SPECT in the evaluation of inner-city minority patients with a history of impaired memory: a pilot blind read pre- and poststudy.

ABSTRACT

Eight patients (seven women), mean +/- SD T1 age 68.57 +/- 12.43 years, average educational level 5.83 +/- 3.70 years, had two Tc-99m ECD SPECT examinations separated by an average 8.49 +/- 5.59 months. Patients were imaged using standard Harlem Hospital acquisition and processing protocols with approximately 30 mCi of ECD on a Prism 3000 triple head gamma camera. Images were interpreted by an independent reader blinded to the patients' clinical history and imaging date. T1 psychiatric diagnosis was seven Alzheimer's dementia (AD) and one depression. Eight T1 images were interpreted as abnormal, six indicative of AD. Binomial 95% two-tail confidence interval for T1 agreement between diagnosis and interpretation was 0.25 0.63 0.92. T2 diagnosis was seven AD and one none. Seven T2 images were abnormal and indicative of AD, and one was normal. T2 confidence interval was 0.34 0.75 0.97. These findings suggest SPECT's value in assessing AD in uneducated socioeconomically disadvantaged geriatric patients.