Abstract.
Reliable and high-resolution reference data for regional cerebral blood flow measured with single-photon emission tomography (SPET) are necessary for optimal clinical and research use. Therefore, a large dataset of normal technetium-99m labelled ethylene cysteine dimer (ECD) perfusion SPET in carefully screened healthy volunteers with an age range spanning six decades was created, with correction for non-uniform attenuation and scatter and based on an anatomically standardised analysis. Eighty-nine healthy volunteers, stratified for gender (46 females, 43 males; age 20–81 years), were included. Twelve volunteers underwent repeated 99mTc-ECD SPET after 2.5±2.3 weeks. An automated whole-brain volume of interest analysis with MANOVA as well as voxelwise analysis using SPM99 was conducted. Average intersubject variability was 4.8% while intrasubject reproducibility was 3.0%. An age-related decline in tracer uptake was found in the anterior cingulate gyrus, bilateral basal ganglia, left prefrontal, left lateral frontal and left superior temporal and insular cortex (all P=0.001–0.02). There was an overall increase in right/left asymmetry with age, which was most pronounced in the frontal and temporal neocortex. The most significant correlations between AI and age decade were found in the prefrontal (R=0.35, P=0.001) and superior temporal neocortex (R=0.43, P<0.001). Women had significantly higher uptake in the right parietal cortex (P<0.001), while men showed higher uptake in the cerebellum and the left anterior temporal and orbitofrontal cortex (all P<0.01). This normative dataset allows age- and gender-specific patient and group assessment of 99mTc-ECD perfusion SPET under a wide variety of clinical circumstances in relation to normal variations and highlights the importance of both age- and gender-specific normal datasets for optimal analysis sensitivity.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Received 26 December 2000 and in revised form 5 April 2001
Electronic Publication
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Van Laere, K., Versijpt, J., Audenaert, K. et al. 99mTc-ECD brain perfusion SPET: variability, asymmetry and effects of age and gender in healthy adults. Eur J Nucl Med 28, 873–887 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s002590100549
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002590100549