[Tomographic cerebral blood flow scanning in diagnosis of psychiatric disorders]

The paper summarises the role of tomographic cerebral blood flow SPECT scanning in psychiatric diagnostics, its' physical and radiopharmaceutical basis, pathological physiology of cerebrovascular circulation in psychiatric disorders and interpretation of cerebral blood flow scanning results by the clinician. Cerebral blood flow scanning is, to some extent, a functional equivalent of CT/MRI scanning. In psychiatry cerebral blood flow SPECT scanning's basic application is the differentiation of dementia and cognitive impairment, in particular Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal lobar degeneration and multi-infarct dementia. The other indications for brain SPECT scanning involve the organic brain lesions and medico-legal diagnostics, including the sequelae of cranio-cerebral trauma. Contraindications and economical aspects are underlined.