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Original Article |
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Neuropsychopharmacology (1999) 21 368-371.10.1038/sj.npp.1395292
Global Cerebral Blood Flow Increase Reveals Focal Hypoperfusion in Schizophrenia
Stephan F Taylor1,3 MD, Rajiv Tandon1 MD and Robert A Koeppe2 Ph.D |
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1Departments of Psychiatry, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Ann Arbor, MI USA
2Internal Medicine Division of Nuclear Medicine, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Ann Arbor, MI USA
3University of Michigan, and Department of Psychiatry, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Ann Arbor, MI USA
Correspondence: Dr Stephan F Taylor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical Center, UH 9D Box 0118, 1500 E. Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0118
This work was previously presented at the Second International Conference on Functional Mapping of the Human Brain, Boston, MA, in June, 1996.
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ABSTRACT
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Recent functional neuroimaging strategies have evaluated cerebral blood flow (CBF) to determine specific sites of action of pharmacologic agents. Since many pharmacologic agents change global CBF, we investigated the effects of global CBF changes on regional perfusion with acetazolamide, which increases global CBF via non-neuronal mechanisms. We used the [15O]PET technique to measure CBF before and after we infused 8 schizophrenic patients and 10 healthy control subjects with acetazolamide. The rostral anterior cingulate cortex demonstrated a greater perfusion increase in the schizophrenic subjects after acetazolamide infusion, relative to other areas of the brain. During the baseline condition, this area showed relative hypoperfusion in our sample of schizophrenic subjects, consistent with previous functional neuroimaging studies. The results demonstrate the need for caution in interpreting CBF changes after pharmacologic challenge, because global CBF changes can confound the assessment of regionally-specific pharmacologic action.
Keywords: Schizophrenia; Cerebrovascular circulation; Emission computed tomography; Acetazolamide; Gyrus cinguli |
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