Evaluation of shortened protocol of graph plot method with 123I-IMP.

Abstract

The (123)I-IMP Graph Plot is a convenient method of analyzing cerebral blood flow without blood sampling. Data acquisition requires 45 minutes after the infusion of (123)I-IMP because the method is matched to the protocol of autoradiography (conventional method). However, we think that those protocols do not have to be matched because those theories are different. Therefore, we contrived a protocol for shortening that time by beginning SPECT data acquisition earlier and shortening the acquisition time compared to the conventional method. We compared count ratios of the decreased area to an area of the healthy side, quantitative values, and results of statistical analysis of the shortened protocol and the conventional method for cases of cerebral infarction and of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Some count ratios of the shortened protocol were inferior to those of the conventional method, but the degrees did not affect the clinical diagnosis. In the other areas and cases also, the differences did not affect the clinical diagnosis. In addition to the results of this study, some previous reports have described that early SPECT images after infusion show the true cerebral blood flow. Therefore, we judged that this shortened protocol can be used as a clinical protocol.