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Patterns of cerebral glucose utilization in depression, multiple infarct dementia, and Alzheimer's disease

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5378285

Patterns of local cerebral glucose utilization were determined in moderately to severely disabled patients with depression (n=7), multiple infarct dementia (n=6), and Alzheimer's disease (n=6), and in normal controls (n=6), using positron emission tomography with the /sup 18/F-fluorodeoxyglucose method. Average global metabolic rate was decreased 30% in patients with Alzheimer's disease, but overlap among the other groups reduced the discriminant value of this measure. In depressed patients, the cerebral metabolic pattern was normal, except for evidence of hypometabolic zone in the posterior-inferior frontal cortex which was of marginal statistical significance. In multiple infarct dementia, focal metabolic defects were scattered throughout the brain and exceeded the extent of infarction. In Alzheimer's disease, metabolism was markedly reduced in cortex, especially parietal cortex, but relatively preserved in caudate, thalamus, anterior cingulate gyrus, pre and post central gyrus, and calcarine occipital cortex, a pattern duplicating the degree and location of pathological and neurochemical alterations characteristic of this disorder.

Research Organization:
California Univ., Los Angeles (USA). Lab. of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences; California Univ., Los Angeles (USA). School of Medicine
DOE Contract Number:
AC03-76SF00012
OSTI ID:
5378285
Report Number(s):
DOE/SF/00012-T23; ON: DE84006733
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English