Baseline symptom severity predicts serotonin transporter change during psychotherapy in patients with major depression.

Aims: The role of the serotonin transporter (SERT) in the pathophysiology of depression is unclear and only a few follow-up studies exist. Our aim was to measure changes in SERT availability during psychodynamic psychotherapy in patients with major depression over a follow-up time of 12 or 18 months.

Methods: The patients were studied with iodine-123 labelled 2β-carbomethoxy-3β-(4-iodophenyl) serial single-photon emission tomography imaging and clinical rating scales of symptoms.

Optimisation of simultaneous tl-201/tc-99m dual isotope reconstruction with monte-carlo-based scatter correction.

Simultaneous Tl-201/Tc-99m dual isotope myocardial perfusion SPECT is seriously hampered by down-scatter from Tc-99m into the Tl-201 energy window. This paper presents and optimises the ordered-subsets-expectation-maximisation-(OS-EM-) based reconstruction algorithm, which corrects the down-scatter using an efficient Monte Carlo (MC) simulator. The algorithm starts by first reconstructing the Tc-99m image with attenuation, collimator response, and MC-based scatter correction.

Myocardial (123) I-metaiodobenzylguanidine washout and heart rate variability in asymptomatic subjects.

Background: Myocardial (123) I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) kinetics reflect the integrity and function of cardiac presynaptic sympathetic nerve terminals. Heart rate variability (HRV) is an indicator of cardiac sympatho-vagal balance. However, the function of cardiac sympathetic nerve terminals as a modulator of HRV in asymptomatic subjects has remained elusive.

Half-time myocardial perfusion SPECT imaging with attenuation and Monte Carlo-based scatter correction.

Purpose: To test the potential of a new reconstruction algorithm with Monte Carlo-based scatter correction in half-time myocardial perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT).

Materials And Methods: The mathematical four-dimensional NURBS-based Cardiac-Torso phantom and the SIMIND Monte Carlo simulation package were used to simulate full-time and half-time SPECT projection data. The data were reconstructed using the standard ordered subset expectation maximization-based algorithm and the new Monte Carlo-based algorithm.

Optimizing bioimpedance measurement configuration for dual-gated nuclear medicine imaging: a sensitivity study.

Motion artefacts due to respiration and cardiac contractions may deteriorate the quality of nuclear medicine imaging leading to incorrect diagnosis and inadequate treatment. Motion artefacts can be minimized by simultaneous respiratory and cardiac gating, dual-gating. Currently, only cardiac gating is often performed.

Reduction of collimator correction artefacts with bayesian reconstruction in spect.

Poor resolution of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) has degraded its use in clinical practice. Collimator correction has been shown to improve the reconstructed resolution, but the correction can generate ringing artefacts, which lower image quality. This paper investigates whether Bayesian reconstruction methods could reduce these artefacts.

Brain derived neurotrophic factor and serotonin transporter binding as markers of clinical response to fluoxetine therapy in children with autism.

Fluoxetine, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), has shown favorable effects in some children with autism. There are no previous studies evaluating the connection between clinical outcome and markers of clinical response to fluoxetine treatment. We examined serum brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) concentrations and serotonin transporter (SERT) binding in the medial frontal cortex and midbrain, measured by single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scanning, in a group of 13 autistic children and adolescents (12 males, one female; age 5-16 years), who were treated for six months with fluoxetine at a dose range of 10-40 mg/day.

Long-term epilepsy surgery outcomes in patients with MRI-negative temporal lobe epilepsy.

Purpose: The outcome of surgery in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and normal high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been significantly worse than in patients with unilateral hippocampal damage upon MRI. The purpose of this study was to determine the long-term outcomes of consecutive true MRI-negative TLE patients who all underwent standardized preoperative evaluation with intracranial electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes.

Methods: In this study we present all adult MRI-negative TLE surgery candidates evaluated between January 1990 and December 2006 at Kuopio Epilepsy Center in Kuopio University Hospital, which provides a national center for epilepsy surgery in Finland.

Serotonin-transporter-linked promoter region polymorphism and serotonin transporter binding in drug-naïve patients with major depression.

Aims: Both the serotonin transporter and its genetic regulation by the serotonin-transporter-linked polymorphic region have a role in the pathophysiology of depression. Most of the previous studies have found no influence of serotonin-transporter-linked polymorphic region allelic variation on serotonin transporter binding in healthy controls or patients with major depression. Due to the inconsistency of the previous findings, we compared single photon emission computed tomography imaging with the serotonin-transporter-linked polymorphic region genotype in patients with major depressive disorder.

Extrapyramidal side-effects and dopamine D(2/3) receptor binding in substantia nigra.

Background: The exact mechanisms for antipsychotic-induced extrapyramidal side-effects have remained obscure despite intensive research. Previous studies have highlighted a central role for nigral dopamine D(2) receptors in the control of motor functions.

Aims: The aim of the present study was to examine relationships between dopamine D(2) receptor binding in both substantia nigra and temporal cortex with extrapyramidal symptoms among antipsychotic-treated patients with schizophrenia.

Brain electrical activity during food presentation in obese binge-eating women.

Binge-eating (BE) subjects have shown altered brain activity at frontal regions during food presentation. The aim of this study was to examine the frontal brain electrical activity in obese BE women (n = 12) and in obese women without BE (non-BE, n = 13). Brain electrical activity was measured using a quantitative electroencephalography during a resting state (eyes-closed) and when the subjects focused (eyes-open) their attention on a picture of a landscape (control experiment) or on a meal (food experiment).

Perfusion differences on SPECT and PWI in patients with acute ischemic stroke.

Introduction: The purposes of the present study were to compare the flow defect volumes on perfusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (PWI) and (99m)Tc-labeled ethylcysteinate dimer ((99m)Tc-ECD) single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) at acute and subacute stages of ischemic stroke and to analyze the relationship between the detected flow defects on the two methods and neurological status and clinical outcomes.

Methods: Perfusion defects on PWI and SPECT were measured within 48 h and on day 8 of the onset of stroke from 22 patients with their first-ever acute supratentorial ischemic stroke. The primary neurological status was evaluated prior to the imaging.

Cardiac repolarization and striatal dopamine transporter function are interrelated.

Objective: In Parkinson's disease, striatal dopamine transporter (DAT) binding and cardiac sympathetic function are disturbed. In addition, heart rate (HR)-corrected cardiac repolarisation time (QTc interval), which is partly under autonomic control, is prolonged. Whether there is physiological coupling between striatal DAT binding and QTc time (QTc-DAT relation) is not known.

Dopamine D2/3 receptor binding potential and occupancy in midbrain and temporal cortex by haloperidol, olanzapine and clozapine.

Aims: Aberrant dopamine transmission in extrastriatal brain regions has been repeatedly illustrated among patients with schizophrenia. Differences between typical and second-generation antipsychotics in dopamine D(2) receptor modulation within various brain areas remain a topic for debate. The aim of the present study was therefore to investigate dopamine D(2/3) receptor apparent binding potential (BP(app)) and occupancy in midbrain and temporal cortex among clozapine-, olanzapine- and haloperidol-treated schizophrenia patients.

Dopamine transporter binding in females with panic disorder may vary with clinical status.

Background: To date the involvement of dopamine system in neurobiology of panic disorder (PD) has been not investigated by imaging studies in humans. In this study, we evaluated the binding potential of dopamine transporter (DAT) in striatum of patients with PD.

Methods: Subjects comprised seven female patients with current PD, seven female PD patients in remission and seven female healthy controls, matched by age.

Differential hypometabolism patterns according to mild cognitive impairment subtypes.

Aims: The present study investigated cerebral glucose metabolism and structural atrophy in controls and subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Methods: The study included 13 controls, 7 MCI subjects considered as prodromal Alzheimer's disease (MCI of the Alzheimer type, aMCI) and 7 MCI subjects having cognitive decline due to other causes, established by clinical evaluation (MCI of the non-Alzheimer type, naMCI). Glucose metabolism in the frontal, parietal and posterior cingulate cortices, the hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus was evaluated using Statistical Parametric Mapping 2 (SPM2).

Serotonin and dopamine transporter binding in children with autism determined by SPECT.

Disturbances in the serotonergic system have been recognized in autism. To investigate the association between serotonin and dopamine transporters and autism, we studied 15 children (14 males, one female; mean age 8 y 8 mo [SD 3 y 10 mo]) with autism and 10 non-autistic comparison children (five males, five females; mean age 9 y 10 mo [SD 2 y 8 mo]) using single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) with [123 I] nor-beta-CIT. The children, with autism were studied during light sedation.

Midbrain serotonin and striatum dopamine transporter binding in double depression: a one-year follow-up study.

Data on neurobiological differences between major depression (MD) and double depression (DD) are scarce. We examined the striatum dopamine (DAT) and midbrain serotonin transporter (SERT) binding of [123I] nor-beta-CIT in DD patients (n=8) and compared it to that in MD patients (n=11) and healthy controls (n=19). Drug-naïve patients and controls were imaged by single-photon emission computed tomography at baseline, and the patients also after one year of psychodynamic psychotherapy.

Temporal cortex dopamine D2/3 receptor binding in major depression.

The aim of this study was to assess the dopamine function of the temporal cortex in major depressive disorder using [(123)I]epidepride to image D(2/3) receptor binding sites. Ten major depressives and 10 healthy controls were selected from a general population sample for single-photon emission computed tomography imaging. Among the major depressives there was a strong bilateral correlation between the scores on the 21-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and D(2/3) receptor binding.

Association of serotonin transporter promoter regulatory region polymorphism and cerebral activity to visual presentation of food.

Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have revealed links between genetic polymorphisms and cognitive and behavioural processes. Serotonin is a classical neurotransmitter of central nervous system, and it is connected to the control of appetite and satiety. In this study, the relationship between the functional variation in the serotonin transporter gene and the activity in the left posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), a brain area activated by visual food stimuli was explored.

Serotonin transporter binding and acquired obesity -- an imaging study of monozygotic twin pairs.

Serotonin (5-HT) has been implicated as one factor controlling body weight and feeding behaviour. We studied the association between obesity and 5-HT by investigating the brain serotonin transporter (SERT) binding in 16 monozygotic twin pairs with varying body mass index (BMI) differences. The radioligand [(123)I]nor-beta-CIT was used for single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging of SERT binding.

Changes in midbrain serotonin transporter availability in atypically depressed subjects after one year of psychotherapy.

Background: Psychotherapy is an effective treatment method for depression, but no differences in the psychotherapy response have been found between the subtypes of depression. The effect of psychotherapy on neurotransmitter transporter functions has never been recorded in depressed subjects.

Methods: Depressive outpatients (N=19) received psychodynamic psychotherapy for 12 months.

Crossed cerebellar diaschisis in acute ischemic stroke: a study with serial SPECT and MRI.

This study evaluated the relationship between crossed cerebellar diaschisis (CCD) and (1) lesion volume and location in the acute phase and 1 week after stroke onset and (2) clinical outcome. Twenty-two patients with cerebral ischemic stroke underwent single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) within 48 h and on day 8 from onset. Interhemispheric asymmetric indices (AI) on SPECT were calculated for medial, intermediate, and lateral zones of the cerebellum.

Reduced midbrain serotonin transporter availability in drug-naïve patients with depression measured by SERT-specific [(123)I] nor-beta-CIT SPECT imaging.

Earlier results have indicated that serotonin transporter (SERT) availability is altered in major depression. We examined SERT density with a more serotonin-specific ligand and with a larger number of patients than in previous studies. Twenty-nine antidepressant-naïve patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 19 healthy age- and sex-matched controls were studied with SPECT using [(123)I] nor-beta-CIT as a ligand.