Cerebral perfusion impairment in a patient with toluene abuse

Y H Ryu, J D Lee, P H Yoon, P Jeon, D I Kim, D W Shin
1998 Journal of Nuclear Medicine  
We report the case of a 17-yr-old man diagnosed as a toluene abuser. He had an 8-mo history of toluene inhalation exposure and was admitted to this hospital with symptoms of auditory and visual hallucination. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed no structural abnormalities both on T1- and T2-weighted images, whereas SPECT using 99mTc-ethyl cysteinate dimer (ECD) showed multifocally decreased perfusion in the cerebral cortex, basal ganglia and thalami. Our case indicates that SPECT detects
more » ... arly central nervous system injury from toluene inhalation even when neurological examination and neuroanatomic imaging such as MRI are normal.
pmid:9544669 fatcat:lzfbipobkbhjbg6ycihpdh3moa