Comparison of pre-and post-thyroxin therapy cerebral blood flow perfusion imaging in adult primary hypothyroidism patients

Objective To observe the changes of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) perfusion imaging in adult primary hypothyroidism patients pre-and post-thyroid hormone (TH) therapy, and to explore the causes of psychoneural dysfunction in this disease. Methods rCBF were measured by SPECT in 15 normal controls and 27 hypothyroidism patients pre-and post-TH therapy, respectively. Results rCBF of 24 hypothyroidism patients decreased. Diffuse and patching sparseness and defect in bilateral cerebral hemisphere were found in 8 patients. Local sparseness and defect in cerebral hemisphere were detected in 16 patients. rCBF were normal in 3 patients, including 1 mild hypothyroidism and 2 sub-clinical hypothyroidism. After the therapy, rCBF became normal in 15 patients and improved significantly in 9 patients, rCBF in bilateral frontal lobes and temporal lobes improved significantly (all P0.05), and showed no difference with the controls (all P0.05). Conclusion The changes of rCBF can be found in adult hypothyroidism patients, which may be related to the neural or psycho symptom in these patients. Early, positive and normalized TH therapy may be important for cerebral function recovery.