[Comparison of regional cerebral blood flow in deficit and nondeficit schizophrenic patients]

Brain imaging techniques are commonly used to define changes in the structure and functions of the brain in schizophrenic patients. The relationships between brain images and the cluster of symptoms provide us with more information about heterogeneous forms of schizophrenia. The aim of this study is to compare the regional blood flow of deficit and nondeficit syndrome schizophrenic patients.

Forty schizophrenic patients under the age of 65, without physical or neurological illness, mental retardation, a history of substance abuse, or ECT over the previous six months were included in the study. The Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms, Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms, UKU Side Effect Rating Scale, Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression and The Schedule for the Deficit Syndrome (SDS) were used to evaluate the patients. The regional cerebral blood flow was measured semiquantitatively by SPECT imaging using radiopharmaceutical Tc 99m-HMPAO.

There was a significant reduction in the regional blood flow of deficit syndrome patients compared to nondeficit ones in the left frontal cortex (p= 0.002), right frontal cortex (p= 0.006) and right temporal cortex (p= 0.04).

We suggest that dysfunctions in some neuroanatomic structures are related to deficit syndrome and the concept of deficit syndrome is important for understanding underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms.