TY - JOUR
T1 - Speech activation of language dominant hemisphere: a single-photon emission computed tomography study
AU - Borbély, Katalin
AU - Gjedde, Albert
AU - Nyáry, István
AU - Czirják, Sándor
AU - Donauer, Nándor
AU - Buck, Alfred
PY - 2003
Y1 - 2003
N2 - We tested the prediction that single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) of the blood flow distribution in speech-activated brain identifies the language-dominant hemisphere. We based the prediction on the hypothesis that language activation leads to focally increased regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF), which is reflected in the uptake of a flow tracer recorded by SPECT. We compared the results of speech activation to the results of functional transcranial Doppler (fTCD) monitoring in the same subjects. Preoperatively, 17 patients (10 women and 7 men with a mean age of 36 +/- 15 years) with diagnoses of epilepsy (n = 14) or arteriovenous malformation (AVM) (n = 3) had two SPECT and two stereo-TCD monitoring studies in each case, one at rest, and one during 3 min of speech activation. Except for two left-handed patients with right-hemisphere dominance, the subjects had the highest changes of rCBF from baseline to activation in the left posterior inferior frontal cortex and in contralateral cerebellum. The results show that changes of the level of neuronal activity reflected by the measurement of rCBF variations might be detected by SPECT. Additionally, the evaluation of hemispheric language dominance based on SPECT showed a complete agreement with the evaluation based on fTCD results (yielding a kappa coefficient equal to 1), and therefore, speech-activation SPECT mapping might be helpful in the evaluation of hemispheric language dominance, especially when fMRI and PET are not available or they are contraindicated for some reason.
AB - We tested the prediction that single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) of the blood flow distribution in speech-activated brain identifies the language-dominant hemisphere. We based the prediction on the hypothesis that language activation leads to focally increased regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF), which is reflected in the uptake of a flow tracer recorded by SPECT. We compared the results of speech activation to the results of functional transcranial Doppler (fTCD) monitoring in the same subjects. Preoperatively, 17 patients (10 women and 7 men with a mean age of 36 +/- 15 years) with diagnoses of epilepsy (n = 14) or arteriovenous malformation (AVM) (n = 3) had two SPECT and two stereo-TCD monitoring studies in each case, one at rest, and one during 3 min of speech activation. Except for two left-handed patients with right-hemisphere dominance, the subjects had the highest changes of rCBF from baseline to activation in the left posterior inferior frontal cortex and in contralateral cerebellum. The results show that changes of the level of neuronal activity reflected by the measurement of rCBF variations might be detected by SPECT. Additionally, the evaluation of hemispheric language dominance based on SPECT showed a complete agreement with the evaluation based on fTCD results (yielding a kappa coefficient equal to 1), and therefore, speech-activation SPECT mapping might be helpful in the evaluation of hemispheric language dominance, especially when fMRI and PET are not available or they are contraindicated for some reason.
U2 - 10.1016/S1053-8119(03)00382-3
DO - 10.1016/S1053-8119(03)00382-3
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 14568468
SN - 1053-8119
VL - 20
SP - 987
EP - 994
JO - NeuroImage
JF - NeuroImage
IS - 2
ER -