Right vs. left hemispheric blood-brain barrier permeability in schizophrenia: a dynamic computed tomographic study

Abstract

Dynamic computerized tomographic brain scanning was used to make determinations of mean cerebral tissue nonenhanced density and contrast-enhanced density in 10 bilateral brain regions in 10 psychotic subjects. Asymmetry of both nonenhanced and contrast-enhanced density was observed; left regional nonenhanced values were higher than right, whereas contrast-enhanced density values were higher on the right than on the left. No significant differences were observed in arterial mean transit time (AMTT) between right and left middle cerebral artery branches or in capillary or tissue mean transit time (CMTT) in the middle temporal cortex. However, corrected CMTT (CCMTT), i.e., CMTT minus AMTT, may have been prolonged in five subjects either on the left or right, or in both homologous regions. Only 2 of 10 subjects exhibited anterior-posterior (AP) gradients that resembled to some extent the hyperfrontal pattern reported in normal subjects by other investigators with different techniques.