Could automated template based quantification of benzodiazepine receptors in brain single photon emission tomography with 123I NNC 13-8241 be used to demonstrate neuronal damage in traumatic brain injury?

Automated methods are required for the analysis of brain single photon emission tomography images. We applied an automated method to assess the benzodiazepine receptor distribution in the brain. Images of 19 patients with mild traumatic brain injury who had received I NNC 13-8241 were compared with a mean brain template accumulated from 18 healthy volunteers. To obtain more information, we calculated the neuronal benzodiazepine receptor binding in the brain by using pre-defined anatomical regions and a voxel-by-voxel technique. The group of patients with mild traumatic brain injury differed significantly (P =0.015) from the group of healthy volunteers in the distribution of benzodiazepine receptors. This methodological work suggests that a reference based template and a three-dimensional brain model help in regional analysis and quantification and could be useful in demonstrating permanent neuronal damage after head injury.