COSTA MESA, Calif.,
March. 19, 2014-- Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a
devastating problem with serious physical and emotional consequences. Nick Bell,
former Oakland Raider running back, suffered for many years with
depression, pain, irritability and isolation as the result of repetitive
traumatic brain injuries as a football player.
Seeking treatment, he
received a brain scan as part of his care. Looking at his brain made a
significant difference to Bell. He said, "Brain SPECT imaging helped me
see the physical damage to my brain in a way which overwhelmingly
explained my past behaviors and emotional issues.
The SPECT scan
motivated me to be aggressive with my treatment, which has made a
wonderful difference for both me and my family." Brain SPECT, which
stands for Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography, is a functional
brain imaging modality that produces images of blood flow to the brain,
showing areas of over or under-activity.
A new paper published by a joint United States
and Canadian team in PLOS One suggests SPECT is useful in both
identifying and guiding treatment for those with TBI. Using standardized
search criteria, the study examined the National Library of Medicine's
largest research databases to identify 1600 papers on SPECT and TBI from
the world literature over the past 30 years. Of these, 71 studies,
involving 2634 patients, were considered of the highest quality and were
included in the review. Nineteen studies followed TBI patients over
time and 5 looked at the effects of treatment interventions.
The
findings of the systematic review include:
1) SPECT is more sensitive
compared to standard anatomical CT and MRI in detecting brain
abnormalities in TBI;
2) SPECT correlates with psychological and
neurological outcomes;
3) SPECT can be used to evaluate treatment
interventions. SPECT scans showed abnormalities not seen on MRI and CT
in all 10 of the studies that investigated this question (100%).
It
was found that a normal SPECT study right after an injury is highly
predictive of a good clinical outcome for patients, but an abnormal scan
right after an injury was not highly predictive of the ultimate outcome
(59%), as the brain has many healing mechanisms. But if the second
scan three months later was also abnormal, the scan was highly
predictive of poor outcome.
"The
bottom line is if a brain SPECT is normal after TBI, patients do well
but we need to see at least two abnormal scans over time to see if they
do poorly," says psychiatrist and SPECT expert Daniel Amen,
one of the co-authors of the paper. "These important findings can have
important implications for diagnosis and brain rehabilitation in
persons with TBI."
Please view the full release here http://www.amenclinics.com/dr-amen/latest-news/item/functional-brain-imaging-can-provide-better-diagnosis-and-treatment-monitoring-in-persons-with-traumatic-brain-injury
Contact:
Kaitlyn Brumleu / Amen Clinics / 949.274.3530 / kbrumleu@amenclinics.com
Aja Haydn-Myer / Amen Clinics / 949-500-1919 / ahaydn-myer@amenclinics.com
SOURCE Amen Clinics, Inc.
http://www.amenclinics.com
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