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^Sup 99m^Tc-ECT SPECT in Severe Hypothyroidism

Posted on: Sunday, 23 October 2005, 03:01 CDT

By Anonymous

In an article e-published ahead of print on August 3 in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, Schraml and a group of investigators from the National Naval Medical Center (Bethesda, MD), the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (Bethesda, MD), and the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions (Baltimore, MD) reported on a study using ^sup 99m^Tc-ethyl cystenate dimer (ECD) SPECT to assess the mechanisms by which thyroid hormone availability affects cerebral activity, with special reference to the role of thyroid dysfunction in psychiatric morbidity. The study included patients who had undergone thyroidectomy and were assessed with SPECT and with mood, anxiety, and psychomotor function test instruments when markedly hypothyroid and later when clinically and/or biochemically euthyroid. The authors found significantly greater depression, anxiety, and psychomotor slowing during the hypothyroid state. Increased ^sup 99m^Tc-ECD activity was noted in the frontal and temporal regions, posterior cingulate gyrus, thalamus, and putamen, with decreased activity in the occipital cortex and the pre- and postcentral gyri. This distribution pattern was partially consistent with that seen in persons with depression and anxiety unrelated to thyroid disease, which the authors noted as evidence of a link between the marked hypothyroidism and psychiatric symptoms observed in their test subjects. They concluded, "these results support the need to consider the effect of the thyroid state on cellular mechanisms of uptake and retention of cerebral blood flow radiopharmaceuticals when studying 'noneuthyroid' individuals."

Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism Copyright Society of Nuclear Medicine Oct 2005

Source: Journal of Nuclear Medicine, The

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