Quantitative assessment of regional cerebral blood flow with 123I-IMP in normal adult subjects

Quantitative assessment of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in the bilateral cerebral and cerebellar cortices was performed in 22 normal adult subjects consisting of an early twenties group (5 men and 9 women, 20-22 years) and middle age group (3 men and 5 women, 41-52 years), using single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) with N-isopropyl-(iodine 123) p-iodoamphetamine. Absolute rCBF values in each region in the 22 subjects ranged from 46 to 102 ml/100 g/min (mean 69.1, standard deviation 13.7 ml/100 g/min). The absolute rCBF values were significantly higher in women than in men, and in the early twenties group than in the middle age group. In addition, based on each absolute rCBF value, the interhemispheric asymmetry, anterior to posterior ratio and cerebellar to frontal ratio in rCBF were calculated. These results may be useful as indexes for detecting organic and functional brain abnormalities in various neuropsychiatric diseases.