[Analysis of cerebral blood flow SPECT imaging on standard brain atlas in patients with dementia of Alzheimer type].

Statistical parametric map (SPM) has been developed by Friston et al. to analyze focal changes in rCBF induced by brain activation. This automated and objective approach has the potential of being applied to SPECT image data sets. This study evaluated an automated analysis of brain SPECT imaging in patients with dementia of Alzheimer type (DAT) using SPM95. Seventeen patients with clinically diagnosed moderate to severe DAT and nine normal control subjects were studied. The SPECT device used was a triple-headed rotation gamma camera GCA9300A/HG. All images were transformed into the standard anatomical space of the stereotactic brain atlas of Talairach and Tournoux, and then smoothed. Statistical analysis was made between DAT and normal control groups. SPM analysis of SPECT images revealed that the parieto-temporal areas and posterior cingulate gyrus of both cerebral hemispheres were significantly decreased in DAT patients compared to normal controls. In conclusion, SPM analysis of SPECT images proved to be useful in the evaluation of abnormal perfusion areas of demented patients.