• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.183-198
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• 2000

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate alterations of regional cerebral blood flow (CBF) and cerebrovascular reserve (CVR), and correlation between these alternations and cognitive dysfunction in patients with chronic traumatic brain injury (TBI) and normal brain MRI findings. Materials and Methods: Thirty TBI patients and 19 healthy volunteers underwent rest/acetazolamide brain SPECT using Tc-99m HMPAO. Korean-Wechsler Adult Intelligence scale test was also performed in the patient group. Statistical analysis was performed with statistical parametric mapping software (SPM'97) Results: CBF was diminished in the left hemisphere including Wernicke's area in all patients with lower verbal scale scores. In addition, a reduction in CBF in the right frontal, temporal and parietal cortices was related with depressed scores in information, digital span, arithmetic and similarities. In patients with lower performance scale scores, CBF was mainly diminished in the right hemisphere including superior temporal and supramarginal gyri, premotor, primary somatomotor and a part of prefrontal cortices, left frontal lobe and supramarginal gyrus. CVR was diminished in sixty-four Brodmann's areas compared to control. A reduction in CVR was demonstrated bilaterally in the frontal and temporal lobes in patients with lower scores in both verbal and performance tests, and in addition, both inferior parietal and occipital lobes in information subset. Conclusion: Alterations of CBF and CVR were demonstrated in the symptomatic TBI patients with normal MRI finding. These alterations were correlated with the change of intelligence, of which the complex functions are subserved by multiple interconnected cortical structures.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.60-66
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• 2000

Objectives: The Psychopathology of schizophrenia was expected to be related with focal dysfunction of brain while schizophrenia is recognized and studied as the brain disease. Authors studied correlation between neuropsychological tests and delusion which is representative symptom of schizophrenia in patients with head trauma and psychiatric patients in order to explore the functional localization of brain in delusional symptom. Methods: Halstead Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery and Korean Weschler Intelligent Scale and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory(MMPI) were administered to one hundred ninteen patients consisted of sixty nine psychiatric patients and fifty patients with brain damage. We tested correlation between results of neuropsychological tests and delusional scale made from twenty four items related with delusion in MMPI. T-test between eighteen higher delusion scorers and twenty one lower scorers was examed in psychiatric group. Results: In brain damage group, signigicant correlations were found in the tests related with function of frontal lobe such as category test, trail making AB test, tactual performance test, digit symbol test and fingertip number writing test, and significant correlations were also noted in the tests related with function of left temporal and parietal lobes such as information, comprehension, vocabulary, similarities and speech sound perception test. The tests related with the function of right hemisphere such as tactual performance test location, picture completion and performance, and the tests related with subcortical function such as arithmetic, digit span, attention, digit symbol test, digit symbol and trail making AB test were signigicantly corelated with delusional scale too. In psychiatric group there were significant difference of delusional score in the tests related with function of left hemisphere such as vocabulary, vocable IQ, comprehension and language, and in the tests related with subcortical function such as N 120 voltage, digit symbol and arithmetic. Conclusions: Delusion seems to be related with function of frontal lobe, left hemisphere and subcortex in both groups. Right hemisphere may be also partially related with delusion.