알코올중독증 환자의 대뇌 국소혈류량 변화

Change of Regional Cerebral Blood Flow in Alcoholics

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of chronic alcohol intake to regional cerebral blood flow in the patients with alcohol dependence by single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT). The subjects were detoxified alcoholic inpatients (n＝10) diagnosed as alcohol dependence by DSM-IV criteria and control group (n＝8). The regions of interest (ROIs) were drawn in frontal lobe (3 ROIs), temporal lobe (3 ROIs), parietal lobe (3 ROIs), occipital lobe (1 ROI), and thalamus (1 ROI). We compared data from chronic alcoholic patients to those from controls about cerebral asymmetry indices and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) indices measured from each ROI. The results were as follows：1) There were significant differences in asymmetry indices of thalamus with alcoholic patients and control group (p<0.05). 2) rCBF indices of alcoholic patients were significantly higher than those of control group in left posterior temporal cortex, right posterior parietal cortex and right thalamus (p<0.05), and tended strongly to be higher than those of control group in right posterior temporal cortex, left posterior parietal cortex and left superior lateral frontal cortex. The result of increased rCBF in cerebral cortex and thalamus of detoxified inpatients with alcohol dependence suggested that there may exist a significant association between alcohol dependence and frontothalamic circuitry as brain reward system. In comparison of rCBF in both hemispheres, rCBF in right thalamus was observed to increase, which is possibly associated with impulsivity and change of affective status. Further research on the change of rCBF according to the duration after alcohol withdrawal is warranted.