Correlation of clinical, MRI and Tc-99m HMPAO SPECT findings in neuro-Behçet's disease

Abstract

Behçet's disease (BD) is a systemic disorder of unknown cause. In our study, we investigated the utility of Tc-99m HMPAO SPECT and MRI in patients with neuro-Behçet's disease (n-BD). Patients and Methods : Twelve patients (two females, ten males ; mean age 33 ± 9.6 yr ; age range 18-45 yr) with n-BD, fulfilling the criteria of the International Study Group for BD, were included in the study. MRI was performed according to a standard protocol with 1 or 1.5 T imagers. Brain SPECT data were obtained using a single head gamma camera after 555 MBq Tc-99m HMPAO injections. Following image reconstruction, regional cerebral perfusion was evaluated both visually and semi quantitatively. Results : Neurological examination showed parenchymal brain involvement in 6 of 12 patients (50%). All 6 patients had white matter lesions on MRI, while only 5 of them showed perfusion defects on brain SPECT. Out of 6 patients (50%) without clinical signs of parenchymal brain involvement, 1 patient showed a pathological brain SPECT and 3 patients showed pathological MRI findings. Semiquantitative analysis of brain regions on SPECT study showed statistically significant hypoperfusion of biparietal regions. Conclusion : This study investigates the correlation between clinical, MRI and SPECT findings and it shows discrepancy between these findings in some cases. Brain SPECT may act as a complementary modality to increase the detection rate of affected regions in patients with n-BD.