Cerebral perfusion impairment in a patient with toluene abuse

J Nucl Med. 1998 Apr;39(4):632-3.

Abstract

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 early central nervous system injury from toluene inhalation even when neurological examination and neuroanatomic imaging such as MRI are normal.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Brain / diagnostic imaging*
  • Brain / pathology
  • Cerebrovascular Circulation*
  • Cysteine / analogs & derivatives
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Male
  • Organotechnetium Compounds
  • Radiopharmaceuticals
  • Substance-Related Disorders / diagnostic imaging*
  • Substance-Related Disorders / pathology
  • Toluene*
  • Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon*

Substances

  • Organotechnetium Compounds
  • Radiopharmaceuticals
  • Toluene
  • technetium Tc 99m bicisate
  • Cysteine