Cortical blood flow during rest and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance in schizophrenia.

Full Abstract

BACKGROUND:
The aim of this study is to examine if patients with schizophrenia differ in prefrontal, orbitofrontal, temporal, parietal and occipital blood flow from healthy controls during performance of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST).

METHODS:
We conducted a 99mTc-hexamethylpropylene amine oxime-SPECT study in patients with schizophrenia (n = 21) and in healthy controls (n = 18). The assessment of relative regional cerebral blood flow (relCBF) was achieved by comparing blood flow of well-defined cortical regions to whole brain blood flow. relCBF at rest and during WCST was compared between the groups and in the groups.

RESULTS:
Significant bilateral prefrontal and right-sided parietal increases of relCBF were found in patients (p < 0.05) during resting conditions, while prefrontal and parietal interhemispheric asymetry were higher in patients (p < 0.005). However, patients failed to increase right prefrontal and frontobasal relCBF as well as orbitofrontal interhemispheric asymetry during WCST performance in contrast to the control group (p < 0.05). The right occipital relCBF increased significantly in patients only (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS:
In our study we could confirm the common hypothesis of schizophrenic hypofrontality at rest and during WCST performance. Moreover, due to our method, we identified significant frontal and parietal interhemispheric asymmetries in schizophrenia at rest as well as right occipital hyperperfusion during WCST.

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Author information

Author/s: Ortuño, Felipe (F); Moreno-Iñiguez, Miguel (M); Millán, Manuel (M); Soutullo, César A (CA); Bonelli, Raphael M (RM);

Affiliation: University Clinic of Psychiatry, University of Navarra College of Medicine, Pamplona, Spain.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Wiener medizinische Wochenschrift (1946) (Wien Med Wochenschr), published in Austria. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Apr; vol 156 (issue 7-8) : pp 179-84

Dates: Created 2006/07/06; Completed 2006/10/11;

PMID: 16823534, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Attention - physiology
Blood Flow Velocity - physiology
Cerebral Cortex - blood supply; radionuclide imaging
Color Perception - physiology
Discrimination Learning - physiology
Dominance, Cerebral - physiology
Female
Frontal Lobe - blood supply; radionuclide imaging

Humans
Male
Neuropsychological Tests
Parietal Lobe - blood supply; radionuclide imaging
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Problem Solving - physiology
Regional Blood Flow - physiology
Schizophrenia - physiopathology; radionuclide imaging
Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon

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