Huttunen Jukka, Heinimaa Markus, Svirskis Tanja, Nyman Mikko, Kajander Jaana, Forsback Sarita, Solin Olof, Ilonen Tuula, Korkeila Jyrki, Ristkari Terja, McGlashan Thomas, Salokangas Raimo K R, Hietala Jarmo
Department of Psychiatry, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
Biol Psychiatry. 2008 Jan 1;63(1):114-7. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.04.017. Epub 2007 Jul 26.
First degree relatives (FDR) of patients with schizophrenia have higher risk of developing schizophrenia than the general population. Previous positron emission tomography (PET) studies have shown that striatal presynaptic dopamine synthesis capacity is increased in schizophrenia. We investigated whether this same phenomenon is shared by individuals with increased genetic risk for schizophrenia.
We used 6-[18F]-fluorodopa (FDOPA) PET imaging to measure striatal dopamine synthesis capacity. We studied 17 nonpsychotic subjects with an FDR with schizophrenia. This group was compared to 17 healthy subjects with no FDRs with schizophrenia.
A conventional region of interest (ROI)-analysis indicated that FDOPA uptake (K(i)) in the caudate-putamen was statistically significantly higher in the FDR group than in the control group. A voxel-level analysis confirmed these results.
These results suggest that the changes of striatal presynaptic dopamine synthesis seen previously in neuroleptic-naive schizophrenic patients is also present in FDRs of patients with schizophrenia. These findings have implications for the early detection of psychosis as well as for pharmacological interventions in individuals at risk for psychosis.
精神分裂症患者的一级亲属（FDR）患精神分裂症的风险高于普通人群。先前的正电子发射断层扫描（PET）研究表明，精神分裂症患者纹状体突触前多巴胺合成能力增强。我们调查了精神分裂症遗传风险增加的个体是否也存在同样的现象。
我们使用6-[18F]-氟多巴（FDOPA）PET成像来测量纹状体多巴胺合成能力。我们研究了17名有精神分裂症FDR的非精神病受试者。将该组与17名无精神分裂症FDR的健康受试者进行比较。
传统的感兴趣区域（ROI）分析表明，FDR组尾状核-壳核中的FDOPA摄取（K(i)）在统计学上显著高于对照组。体素水平分析证实了这些结果。
这些结果表明，先前在未使用抗精神病药物的精神分裂症患者中观察到的纹状体突触前多巴胺合成变化在精神分裂症患者的FDR中也存在。这些发现对精神病的早期检测以及对有精神病风险个体的药物干预具有重要意义。
