Technetium-99m-ECp Brain SPECT in Cerebral Palsy: Comparison with MRI

Hypoxie brain injury is one of the major causes of cerebral palsy. Therefore, this study was performed to evaluate cerebral perfusion impairments in these patients using ""Tc-ECD brain SPECT. Methods: Fifty-one patients (31 boys, 20 girls;age range 6 mo to 6 yr, 11 mo) with clinical manifestations of cerebral palsy underwentbrain SPECT after intravenous injection of ""Tc-ECD. The clinical subtypes of cerebral palsy were spastic diplegia (n = 35), spastic quadriplegia (n = 11), spastic hemiparesis (n = 2), choreoathetoid (n = 2) and mixed (n = 1). Transaxial, coronal and sagittal images obtained with a brain-dedicated annular crystal gamma camera were qualitatively analyzed and compared with the findings of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Results: In SPECT, thalamic hypoperfusion was seen in all patients except one (98%), followed by hypoperfusion in the temporal lobe (52.9%, n = 27), basal ganglia (41.2%, n = 21), cerebellum (39.2%, n = 20) and extratem poral cortices (21.6%, n = 11). However, MR imaging demonstrate