Analysis of the gamma ray spectra recorded in the use of Xenon-133 for cerebral blood flow studies

Abstract

A problem in the measurement of cerebral blood flow with 133Xenon is the presence of extra-cerebral counts in the total counts recorded with a collimated gamma ray detector looking at the brain. A method of studying qualitatively the contribution of this extra-cranial component in patients is described. This entails the sequential accumulation of gamma ray spectra recorded during the clearance phase of 133Xenon from the brain. It is shown that different CBF indices are obtained for various regions of the recorded gamma ray spectra. The principal component of the extra-cerebral counts at 15 minutes postinjection appears to be intra-cranial, and not the scalp as assumed previously in the spectrum subtraction method.