Preliminary Basic And Clinical Studies On Positron Emission Tomography: The Establishment Of PET Functional Images Analysis Methods And The Application In Brain Plasticity

Nowadays, the study on the plasticity of the brain is one of the hotspots in nerve scientific research. But the mechanism of the brain plasticity is not clear at present. A subject with significant meanings is how to make the use of brain plasticity to obtain the largest entent of functional recovery after nerve injury. The application of brain FDG-PET imaging tecnique makes it possible to study a whole and live brain and to understand the brain plasticity. Our study concentrates FDG-PET imaging of brain plasticity after nerve injury, which involves 3 parts as follows.Part I. Establishment of technical methods to study brain functionObjective Through establishing the technical methods to study the abnormal glucose metabolism in parkinson' s disease, and the effects of bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) stimulation on resting-state cerebral glucose metabolism of advanced Parkinson' s disease. Methods Ten advanced Parkinson' s diseases patients and 10 age-matched healthy subjects underwent 18F~FDG/PET examinations at res ting-state . Five in the ten advanced Parkinson' s disease patients with bilateral STN DBS underwent 2 times '"F-FDG/PET examinations at resting-state preoperatively and one month postoperatively with STN stimulation respectively. Statistical parametric mapping (SPM) was used to investigate regional cerebral metabolism during STN stimulation in comparison with metabolism preoperatively. Results Compared to age-matched healthy subjects, the regional glucose metabolism increased in both hippocampus , thalamus, precentral cortex(BA6) and lentiform and decreased in both prefrontal motor area (BA46), parietal area in advanced PD cases. STN stimulation improved the clinical symptoms obviously for each patient and changedPETsignificantly: cerebral metabolism increased in left globus pallidus, upper brainst em (right midbrain), bilateral parietal -occipital cortex , and decreased in the bottom of both prefrontal cortex. Conclusion The SPM analysis of PET images can show the abnormal metabolism brain regions, and can investigate the mechanism of DBS. The SPM analysis of PET images can be used as standard methods of brain function study.Part II. The study of brain plascitity after peripheral nerve injury(?The brain metabolic differnce between the normal and the contra lateral C7 nerve root transfer after the peripheral nerve injury Objective To show The brain metabolic differnce between the normal and the contralateral C7 nerve root transfer after the peripheral nerve injury with 18FDG-PET imaging. Methods Six contralateral C7 nerve root transfer patients and sixth healthy subjects underwent 1SFDG PET examinations at resting state separately. SPM was used to investigate regional cerebral metabolic rate of glucose. Results SPM show the regional glucose metabolism decreased in right SMC(BA4), right parietal (BA40, right SMA (BA6), right caudate and putamen. Conclusion Because lack of the input nerve and output nerve fiber, the decreased brain regions were showed by FDG-PET in the contralateral C7 nerve root transfer patients. () Cerebral structures participating in upper limb movement in health subjectsObjective To show the brain functional regions participating in the upper limb movement in health subjects with 1SFDG~PET imaging. Methods Six healthy subjects underwent ISFDG PET examinations at resting state and activated state separately. SPM was used to investigate regional cerebral metabolic rate of glucose. Results SPM show the regional glucose metabolism increased in bilateral Brodmann6, bilateral Brodmann4, left Brodmann2, left BrodmannS, left BrodmannS, left extra-nucleus white matter, left thalamus, left brainstem and right Brodmann? after right upper limb movement, obviously in left brain region. Conclusion SPM can show the activated brain regions after upper limb movement in accord with the nerve transfer, and this is helpful to investigates brain functionPETreorganization.Cri)The mechanism of brain plasticity in the the contralateral C7 nerve root transfer after the peripheral n...