Evaluation of regional cerebral blood flow in massive intracerebral calcifications.

Fahr's disease is histopathologically characterized by massive bilateral calcifications of the cerebral basal ganglia, the dentate nuclei of the cerebellum and both the cerebral and cerebellar cortices. We report a case of Fahr's disease in which a 99mTc-hexamethyl-propylenamine oxime (99mTc-HMPAO) brain SPECT study was used to evaluate regional cerebral blood flow to the calcified regions. There was markedly decreased perfusion to the basal ganglia bilaterally as well as decreased perfusion to the cerebral cortices that correlated well with the patient's clinical condition.