Evaluation of regional cerebral glucose metabolism in patients with corticobasal degeneration using F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography

Abstract

Backgrounds and Objectives: The corticobasal degeneration (CBD) is a neurodegenerative disease showing the progressive asymmetric extrapyramidal motor deficits, apraxia and cortical sensory loss. The asymmetric fronto-parietal cortical and subcortical hypometabolism was demonstrated in the previous F-18 deoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG PET) scan studies. We investigated the hypometabolic pattern of Korean CBD patients using quantitative FDG PET and voxel based comparison method. Methods: Twelve patients with CBD and 16 age-matched controls were included in this study. Quantitative brain FDG PET and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan studies were performed simultaneously in all subjects. For better spatial normalization of PET image, individual MR image was used for the normalization template. Using the group comparison model in the Statistical Parametric Mapping 2 (SPM) software, we compared the local glucose metabolism between the CBD patients and normal controls. Results: The global glucose metabolic activity of the CBD patients was significantly lower than that of controls. In SPM analysis, the CBD patients showed significantly decreased glucose metabolism in the fronto-parieto-temporal cortices, thalamus and caudate nucleus. The contralateral hemisphere to the more affected side showed decreased glucose metabolism in much wider fronto-parieto-temporal cortices. Conclusions: Quantitative FDG PET analysis showed asymmetric fronto-parieto-temporal hypometabolism in patients with CBD and is useful method in diagnosing the CBD.