[Computed tomographic measurement of regional cerebral blood flow by xenon enhancement (author's transl)].

The present study was conducted to overcome some of disadvantages of cerebral blood flow study by radionuclide, such as poor regionality of flow values and errors involved in pathological brains. Serial CT scanning was carried out during and after inhalation of 50 to 70% non-radioactive xenon in humans. Diffusible gas with high atomic number enhanced gray matter first 19 +/- 4 HU (mean +/- SD) on an average in Hounsfield unit (HU) and later white matter 24 +/- 4 HU. In seven normal subjects, blood flow in gray matter was 82 +/- 11 and that in white matter 24 +/- 5 ml/100 gm/min. Partition coefficient which is not readily obtainable by radionuclide study was 0.9 +/- 0.1 in normal gray matter and 1.4 +/- 0.2 in normal white matter. Two cases were presented to show k-map (clearance rate), lambda-map (partition coefficient) and CBF map, which displayed images of values calculated automatically, in black and white or color on CRT. The first case was a patient with metastatic brain tumor from lung in the left parietal region. The blood flow of the tumor was close to that of gray matter, whereas blood flow of edematous white matter surrounding the tumor was decreased to below 10 ml/100 g/min with partition coefficient ranged from 0 to 0.9. The second case was presented to demonstrate the resolution of the blood flow map obtained by this method. Multiple lacunar infarcts of the basal ganglia and white matter in the size of 1 to 3 mm, which were hardly identified on regular CT picture, were well visualized on CBF map. This method appeared to have several advantages over conventional isotope method and to provide useful clinical and research informations.