Turkish Journal of
GERIATRICS

Atatürk Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Nükleer Tıp AD, ERZURUM
Atatürk Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Nöroloji AD, ERZURUM
Atatürk Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Psikiyatri AD, ERZURUM
Atatürk Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Radyodiagnostik Anabilim Dalı, ERZURUM The term dementia is used to describe a clinical pattern of acquired, global and progressive impairment of intellect, memory and personality without impairment of consciousness. The commonest form of dementia is Alzheimer's disease (AD), and the second commonest cause of dementia is multiinfarct dementia (MID) in the elderly. Several Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) studies have demonstrated correlations between regional Cerebral Blood Flow (rCBF) and neuropsychological function in subjects with dementia. We also performed this study to evaluate the rCBF changes in patients with different types of dementia. Ten patients (4 females, 6 males), diagnosed as dementia with neurologic examination and psychometric tests were included in the study. Patients' ages were ranged from 65 to 81 years. The patients having more than 7 points in Hachinski score were diagnosed as vascular dementia, having less than 4 points were diagnosed as AD dementia. Ali patients were evaluated with brain SPECT using 600 MBq Tc99m HMPAO. SPECT images were obtained 20 minutes after the injection of radiopharmaceutical and transaxial, sagittal, coronal slices, and orbito-meatal slices were generated. Evaluation of these slices were carried out with visual evaluation and any hypoperfused area in cerebral cortex was accepted as pathologic. SPECT findings were compared to CT or MRI findings. The SPECT findings of our patients were correlated with the type of dementia. However, the number of patients with MID were significantly higher than the other dementia in contrast to the previous studies. Keywords : SPECT, Elderly, Dementia