Evaluation of a 99Tcm bound brain scanning agent for single photon emission computed tomography.

D,L HM-PAO-99Tcm (PAO) is a lipophilic tracer complex which is avidly taken up by the brain. We have compared the regional distribution of PAO with regional cerebral blood flow (CBF). CBF was measured by single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) by Tomomatic 64 after 133Xe inhalation in 41 patients. With the same SPECT the distribution of PAO was measured after intravenous injection. High resolution (HR) and low resolution (LR) studies were performed yielding a resolution of 6-10 mm (HR) and 15-20 mm (LR). PAO images showed close resemblance to 133Xe CBF tomograms. Only 20 per cent of the (decay corrected) brain counts were lost during 24 hours.