Local cerebral glucose utilisation in chronic alcoholics: a positron tomographic study.

Abstract

SUMMARY Using positron tomography, a study of regional cerebral glucose utilisation was performed prospectively in a highly selected group of six neurologically unaffected primary chronic alcoholics. In this group, neuropsychological, behavioural and CT scan anomalies were comparable with those previously reported in more extensive studies. With respect to age-matched control values, cerebral metabolic rate was not significantly modified in the selected cortical, subcortical and cerebellar regions of interest. However, the metabolic regional distribution index, which reflects the distribution pattern of glucose utilisation, was selectively and significantly decreased in the mediofrontal area, pointing to a limbic metabolic dysfunction apparently linked to chronic alcoholism. Using the '8F-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-Glucose ('8FDG) method26 PET studies were carried out on an ECAT II, between the end of the first week and the end of the first month of the hospital admission with apparent abstinence. Three adjacent brain levels were scanned consecutively (respectively 15, 35, 55 mm above and parallel to the orbitomeatal line) on subjects at rest, eyes closed, ears unplugged and free from any medication for at least 24 hours, according to our usual protocol.25 Briefly, all images were corrected for attenuation using Ge68-Ga68 transmission scans; 18FDG radioactivity blood curve was obtained from crosscalibrated plasma counting of serial arterial blood samples, 1165

Frontal P300 decrements, alcohol dependence, and antisocial personality disorder

“…Positron emission tomography and SPECT findings have included demonstrations of diffuse hypometabolism in the frontal lobes (Sachs et al 1987;Volkow et al 1992Volkow et al , 1994Wang et al 1992) as well as more focused deficits in the anterior cingulate (O'Carroll et al 1991) and other anterior regions of the frontal lobes (Nicolas et al 1993). Several investigators have detected significant correlations between frontal hypometabolism in alcohol-dependent patients and performance deficits on neuropsychologic tasks related to frontal lobe functions (Adams et al 1993;Dao-Castellana et al 1998;Gilman et al 1990;Samson et al 1986). The frontal hypometabolism found in alcoholic patients could be the result of a functional deficit and/or a loss of neurons within the superior frontal cortex or frontal cingulate gyri (Cala 1987;Kril and Harper 1989;Pfefferbaum et al 1997).…”

Effects of capsular or thalamic stroke on metabolism in the cortex and cerebellum: a positron tomography study.

“…cm group over the cortical rim on each of the selected planes using a standardized method described in detail elsewhere. 24 - 26 With respect to the cerebellum, the standard protocol reported by Pantano et al 4 was employed on 17 patients (six in group I, five in group II, and six in group III).…”

Reduced posterior mesofrontal cortex activation by risky rewards in substance-dependent patients

“…Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies consistently reveal frontocortical recruitment by behavior control tasks (Horn et al, 2003;Li et al, 2006a;Li et al, 2006b;Ridderinkhof et al, 2004), such as risk-taking . SUD subjects also show blunted frontocortical glucose utilization (Gilman et al, 1990;Samson et al, 1986) and blood flow (Bolla et al, 2003), that correlate with reaction times (Dao-Castellana et al, 1998) and risky choices (Bolla et al, 2003;Fishbein et al, 2005) in decision-making tasks. These findings suggest a possibility that higher-order cortical regions that maintain or integrate representations of potential penalties for immediately rewarding behavior are impaired in persons with SUD.…”