Summary
Regional cerebral blood flow was evaluated using Tc99m-HMPAO SPECT in 10 medicated patients with schizophrenia and 9 healthy volunteers. There were no prefrontal regions in the patient group with lower regional indices than in the control group. However, in the left hippocampal region, relative blood flow was significantly increased in the patient group compared with the control group. Furthermore, there was a relative increase in blood flow in the left basal ganglia of the patient group. A negative correlation coefficient was calculated between the relative blood flow in the left middle prefrontal cortex and the severity of the blunted affect, as well as between the relative blood flow in the left basal ganglia and the severity of the anhedonia-asociality. These findings indicate that prefrontal hypoactivity is not invariably present in all schizophrenics and that left basal ganglial hyperactivity may be associated with the effects of antipsychotic treatment and clinical improvement. Moreover, the left hippocampal hyperactivity may correspond to left limbic dysfunction in schizophrenia.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychiatric Association, Committee on Nomenclature and Statistics (1987) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Revised Third Edition. American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC
Andersen AR (1989) 99mTc-D,l-Hexamethylene-propyleneamine Oxime (99mTc-HMPAO): basic kinetic studies of a tracer of cerebral blood flow. Cerebrovasc Brain Metab Rev 4: 288–318
Andreasen NC (1984) The scale for the assessment of negative symptoms (SANS). Iowa City, Iowa: University of Iowa
Andreasen NC, Olsen S (1983) Negative vs positive schizophrenia: definition and validation. Arch Gen Psychiatry 39:789–794
Bogerts B, Meertz E, Schönfeldt-Bausch R (1985) Basal ganglia and limbic system pathology in schizophrenia. Arch Gen Psychiatry 42:784–791
Buchsbaum MS, Wu JC, DeLisi LE, Holcomb HH, Hazlett E, Copper-Langston K, Kessler R (1987) Positron emission tomography studies of basal ganglia and somatosensory cortex neuroleptic drug effects: differences between normal controls and schizophrenic patients. Biol Psychiatry 22:479–494
Crow TJ (1980) Molecular pathology of schizophrenia: more than one disease process? BMJ 280:66–68
DeLisi LE, Dauphinais D, Gershon ES (1988) Perinatal complications and reduced size of brain limbic structures in familial schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull 14:185–191
DeLisi LE, Buchsbaum MS, Holcomb HH, Langston KC, King AC, Kessler R, Picker D, Carpenter WT, Morihisa JM, Margolin R, Weinberger DR (1989) Increased temporal lobe glucose use in chronic schizophrenic patients. Biol Psychiatry 25:835–851
Flor-Henry P (1976) Lateralized temporal-limbic dysfunction and psychopathology. Ann NY Acad Sci 280:777–795
Ingvar DH, Franzén G (1974) Distribution of cerebral activity in chronic schizophrenia. Lancet ii:1484–1486
Kawasaki Y (1990) Effects of antipsychotic drug on the local cerebral blood flow in rats. Juzen Med Soc 99:450–462
Kay SR, Opler LA (1987) The positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) for schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull 13:261–275
Kurachi M, Kobayashi K, Matsubara R, Hiramatsu H, Yamaguchi N, Matsuda H, Maeda T, Hisada K (1985) Regional cerebral blood flow in schizophrenic disorders. Eur Neurol 24:176–181
Kurachi M, Suzuki M, Kawasaki Y, Kobayashi K, Shimazu A, Yamaguchi N (1987) Regional cerebral blood flow in patients with schizophrenic disorders. In: Takahashi R, Flor-Henry P, Gruzelier J, Niwa S (eds) Cerebral Dynamics, Laterality and Psychopathology. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 493–501
Matsuda H, Oba H, Seki H, Higashi S, Sumiva H, Terada H, Imai K, Shiba K, Mori H, Hisada K (1988) Determination of flow and rate constants in kinetic model of [99mTc]-hexamethylpropylene amine oxime in the human brain. J Cereb Blood Flow Metabol 8:S61-S68
Matsuda H, Oskoie SD, Kinuya K, Tsuji S, Sumiya H, Tonami N, Hisada K (1990) Tc-99m HMPAO brain perfusion tomography atlas using a high resolution SPECT system. Clin Nucl Med 15:428–431
Musalek M, Podreka I, Suess E, Nutzinger D, Passweg V, Strobl R, Walter H, Baumgartner C, Lesch OM (1988) Neurophysiological aspects of auditory hallucinations: 99mTc-(HMPAO)-SPECT investigation in patients with auditory hallucinations and normal controls- a preliminary report. Psychopathology 21:275–280
Musalek M, Podreka I, Walter H, Suess E, Passweg V, Nutzinger D, Strobl R, Lesch OM (1989) Regional brain function in hallucinations: a study of regional cerebral blood flow with 99mTc-HMPAO-SPECT in patients with auditory hallucinations, tactile hallucinations, and normal controls. Compre Psychiatry 30:99–108
Neirinckx RD, Canning LR, Piper IM, Nowotonik DP, Pickett RD, Holmes RA, Volkert WA, Forster AM, Weisner PS, Mariott JA, Chaplin SB (1987) Technetium-99m D, 1-HM-PAO: a new radiopharmaceutical for SPECT imaging of regional cerebral blood perfusion. J Nucl Med 28:191–202
Overall JR, Gorham DR (1962) The brief psychiatric rating scale. Psychol Rep 10:799–812
Paulman RG, Devous MD, Gregory RR, Herman JH, Jennings L, Bonte FJ, Nasrallah HA, Raese JD (1990) Hypofrontality and cognitive impairment in schizophrenia: dynamic single-photon tomography and neuropsychological assessment of schizophrenic brain function. Biol Psychiatry 27:377–399
Sigh MM, Kay SR, Opler LA (1987) Anticholinergic-neuroleptic antagonism in terms of positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia: implications for psychobiological subtyping. Psychol Med 17:39–48
Sokoloff L (1981) Relationship between local functional activity, energy metabolism, and blood flow in the central nervous system. Fed Proc 40:2311–2316
Suzuki M (1988) A study on the relationship between regional cerebral blood flow and clinical symptoms in functional psychoses: (I) schizophrenic disorder. Juzen Med Soc 97:764–778
Torrey EF, Peterson MR (1974) Schizophrenia and the limbic system. Lancet ii:942–946
Weinberger DR, Berman KF, Zec RF (1986) Physiologic dysfunction of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia: I. regional cerebral blood flow evidence. Arch Gen Psychiatry 43: 114–124
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kawasaki, Y., Suzuki, M., Maeda, Y. et al. Regional cerebral blood flow in patients with schizophrenia. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Nuerosci 241, 195–200 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02190252
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02190252