Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2003 Jan 15;53(2):150-6.
doi: 10.1016/s0006-3223(02)01548-2.

Regional cerebral blood flow in depressed patients with white matter magnetic resonance hyperintensity

Kenji Oda  1 , Yoshiro Okubo, Ryuji Ishida, Yuji Murata, Katsuya Ohta, Tetsuya Matsuda, Eisuke Matsushima, Tetsuya Ichimiya, Tetsuya Suhara, Hitoshi Shibuya, Toru Nishikawa
Affiliations

Regional cerebral blood flow in depressed patients with white matter magnetic resonance hyperintensity

Kenji Oda et al. Biol Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: Functional neuroimaging studies have consistently demonstrated decreased regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) or metabolism in the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, or anterior cingulate gyrus of depressed patients. On the other hand, white matter hyperintensity as defined by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been the most consistently replicated finding in structural neuroimaging studies on depression; however, these functional and structural neuroimaging findings of depression have not been well integrated. We aimed to clarify the possible associations of MRI-defined subcortical hyperintensities with rCBF changes in depressed patients.

Methods: Twelve depressed patients with subcortical hyperintensities defined by MRI, 11 depressed patients without MRI hyperintensities, and 25 healthy volunteers underwent 99mTc ECD SPECT. Group comparisons of their rCBF and correlation analysis between MRI hyperintensity and rCBF in patients were performed with a voxel-based analysis using statistical parametric mapping (SPM) software.

Results: Depressed patients showed decreased rCBF compared with control subjects in the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, and anterior cingulate gyrus whether subcortical hyperintensity existed or not; however, the patients with MRI hyperintensity showed decreased rCBF in the thalamus, basal ganglia, and brainstem in addition to cortical areas. Further, the score for white matter hyperintensity correlated negatively with rCBF in subcortical brain structures, including the thalamus and right basal ganglia.

Conclusion: Our study indicates that depressed patients with MRI hyperintensities may have dysfunction in subcortical brain structures in addition to dysfunction in the fronto-temporal cortical structures.

PubMed Disclaimer

Publication types