Single-photon emission computed tomography

Single-photon emission computed tomography, abbreviated SPECT or SPET, is a nuclear medicine imaging test. It is used to obtain 3-D images of many body systems, however, the one used specifically for ME/CFS is a brain scan. At present time, the use of SPECT brain scans for ME/CFS is mostly used in clinical studies of the pathophysiology of ME/CFS. It is not needed for diagnosis nor is it used as a treatment.

For general info about SPECT please see the Wikipedia page : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-photon_emission_computed_tomography

SPECT studies of interest related to ME/CFS

1992: A study done at the Department of Radiology (Division of Nuclear Medicine), University of Toronto, Canada stated: "Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was assessed in 60 clinically defined CFS patients and 14 normal control (NC) subjects using 99Tcm-hexamethylpropyleneamine oxime (99Tcm-HMPAO) single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Compared with the NC group, the CFS group showed significantly lower cortical/cerebellar rCBF ratios, throughout multiple brain regions (P < 0.05). Forty-eight CFS subjects (80%) showed at least one or more rCBF ratios significantly less than normal values. The major cerebral regions involved were frontal (38 cases, 63%), temporal (21 cases, 35%), parietal (32 cases, 53%) and occipital lobes (23 cases, 38%). The rCBF ratios of basal ganglia (24 cases, 40%) were also reduced. 99Tcm-HMPAO brain SPECT provided objective evidence for functional impairment of the brain in the majority of the CFS subjects." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1491843

1994: A study done at the Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, showed that "Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome had significantly more defects throughout the cerebral cortex on SPECT scans than did normal subjects (7.31 vs 0.43 defects per subject, p < .001). SPECT abnormalities were present in 13 (81%) of 16 patients, vs three (21%) of 14 control subjects (p < .01). SPECT scans showed significantly more abnormalities than did MR scans in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (p < .025)." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8141020

1994: A study done at the Department of Medicine, Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN concluded: "Serum TGF-beta and cerebral blood flow abnormalities, detected by single-photon emission-computed tomographic scanning, were accentuated postexercise in the CFS group. Although these findings were not significantly different from those in the control group, the effect of exercise on serum TGF-beta and cerebral blood flow appeared magnified in the CFS patients." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7496949

1995: A study done at the Department of Psychiatry, UCL Medical School, London using SPET concluded: "An initial pilot study revealed widespread reduction of regional brain perfusion in 24 ME/CFS patients, compared with 24 normal volunteers." A second test was done on 67 patients with ME/CFS. "Brain-stem hypoperfusion was confirmed in all ME/CFS patients....Patients with ME/CFS have a generalized reduction of brain perfusion, with a particular pattern of hypoperfusion of the brainstem." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8542261

1998: A study done at the Department of Radiology, St. Vincent's Hospital, New York, NY used eighteen patients (14 females, 4 males), who fulfilled the diagnostic criteria of the Centers for Disease Control for chronic fatigue syndrome. They concluded that: "Thirteen patients had abnormal SPET brain perfusion scans and five had normal scans." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9861623

2003: A study at the College of Health Sciences, University of Texas, El Paso, Texas on 15 subjects with CFS and 15 healthy persons done twice: at rest and when performing the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT). Results showed:"No group differences were found for performance on the PASAT despite CFS subjects' perceptions of exerting more mental effort to perform the task than healthy subjects. Inspection of the aggregate scans by group and task suggested a pattern of diffuse regional cerebral blood flow among subjects with CFS in comparison with the more focal pattern of regional cerebral blood flow seen among healthy subjects. Between-group region-of-interest analysis revealed that although CFS subjects showed less perfusion in the anterior cingulate region, the change in CFS subjects' activation of the left anterior cingulate region during the PASAT was greater than that observed for healthy subjects. The differences were not attributable to lesser effort by the subjects with CFS, confounding effects of mood perturbation, or to poorer performance on the experimental task." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12554824