Autism Brain SPECT scan

By Lorene Amet

This video presents the use of Brain SPECT imaging to analyze the blood flow (i.e. related to metabolism) of the cerebral cortex in autism. The video is in 3 parts.

Part I is about the experience of doing a SPECT brain imaging with a child with autism and one of his parents. Part II will explain a little more about what is known regarding the functions of cerebral cortex, and the results obtained from this analysis. A little hint to this story In accordance with B Degirmenci et 2008, there were evidence of hypoperfusion in some brain areas, in the left temporal, and parietal cortex in both the autistic child and first-degree relative. This analysis was conducted with the generous support of Cem KINACI MD, Nuclear Medicine Physician, at the Deutsches Krankenhaus-Universal Hospitals Group, in Istanbul - TURKEY.

Oh yes, I must apologize to start this video with images and music again- it seems that I cannot stop thinking in such way preferably over other forms of communication.

A note regarding the music- this is a piece from Schoenberg: Leith, Zart from Six Little Pieces for Piano Op.19- Played by Glenn Gould- who is thought to have had Asperger. If you listen carefully, you can hear his (famous) chair (-which he always took around with him to play) cracking at 42 sec. A most personal additional signature to his wonderful playing.

High Definition Brain SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) is a non invasive procedure which can detect functional changes by mapping the blood flow distribution, throughout the brain volume. In so doing it enables the description of abnormal features in the gray matter of both cortical and subcortical structures, based on the color rendition of relative perfusion maps.

A molecule with special properties (HMPAO e.g. HexaMethyl PropyleneAmine Oxime) is labeled with a short lived (T1/2 = 6 hr) radiotracer (99m Technetium) and a small amount is injected intravenously under special surrounding environment conditions. Within 3 minutes this molecule is distributed in the gray matter in proportion to the blood flow which in turn is, in general, proportional to metabolism (the level of local gray matter activity). This distribution remains stable for several hours, which represents one of the major advantages of Brain SPECT. Subsequently the patients head is scanned, on a Gamma Camera, for an optimal number of minutes, while lying down.



This video describes the use of various brain imaging techniques in autism- it gives an overview of what has been published in the field. The last video will present the outcomes of the imaging done on my son and I. Please tune your ears to the French accent. I am sorry if I make grammatical mistakes, especially with plurals, I did not type what I said, and I actually dislike to speak to a camera, I am better at talking to people, at least, Id like to think this is the case.

This last video presents the outcomes of the imaging done on my son and I. Please tune your ears to the French accent. I did not clarify when showing the SPECT brain scan of child and parent that the right side of the scan corresponds to the left side of the brain.

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