[Cerebral blood flow study using SPECT in patients with memory disorders]
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Updated: Nov 2, 2026
Cerebral Blood Flow-Based Resting State Functional Connectivity of the Human Brain using Optical Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy
Published on: May 27, 2020
E Valiente1, M S Botella, R Martín
1Sección de Neurologia, Hospital de San Juan, Alicante, España.
Introduction:
Global amnesia (AG) is a dysfunction of memory, in which there is a sudden incapacity to remember recent events and assimilate new information. The aetiology is currently under discussion. The main hypotheses under consideration are an ischemic mechanism and an epileptic mechanism.
Objective:
To study the cerebral blood flow in patients with temporary global amnesia (AGT) or permanent global amnesia (AGP) using functional neuroimaging techniques.
Material And Methods:
Four patients were studied. Two had severe alterations of fixation memory which had been present for months. The other two had a sudden loss of recent memory, although space-person orientation and immediate memory remained normal. In all cases the cerebral blood flow (FSC), was assessed by single photon emission tomography (SPECT), using Tc-HMPAO as the radio tracer.
Results:
We describe 4 patients, 2 men and 2 women aged between 42 and 64.2 with AGT and the others with AGP. On SPECT there was temporal hypoperfusion in all 4 patients. In 2 cases there was associated parietal hypoperfusion and in 1 case there was frontal hypoperfusion.
Conclusions:
These findings suggest that AGT and AGP are of vascular origin and that SPECT is a useful diagnostic technique in patients with AG.
