Brain activity imaging
BRAIN
Brain single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) was conducted using 925–1,110 MBq (25–30 mCi) of technetium-99m-methyl-cysteinate-dimmer (Tc-99m-ECD) at 40–60min post-injection, using a dual detector gamma camera (Symbia T, Siemens Medical Systems), equipped with high resolution collimators. Data was acquired in 3-degree steps and reconstructed iteratively with Chang method (μ = 0.12/cm) attenuation correction. Both pretreatment and post-treatment SPECT images were normalized to the median maximal brain activity in the entire brain and were then reoriented into Talairach space using Oasis Neurology—NeuroGam application (Segami Corporation, Columbia, MD, USA) to identify Brodmann cortical areas and to compute the mean perfusion in each Brodmann area (BA) [