Validation of CBF measurement with non-invasive microsphere method (NIMS) compared with autoradiography method (ARG).

The purpose of this study is to examine the correlation of measured regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) by means of a new microsphere method (non-invasive microsphere method), to the autoradiography (ARG) method, which is an established quantification method for 123I-IMP brain SPECT. The non-invasive microsphere (NIMS) method and ARG method were simultaneously applied to 30 patients, and quantified rCBF maps were calculated with each method. A significant correlation (r = 0.70: p < 0.001) was detected between mCBF values calculated with the NIMS and ARG methods. This new method seems to reliably quantify rCBF with brain SPECT.