Objective To investigate the value of brain ~ 99mTc-TRODAT-1 SPECT in differentiation of essential tremor (ET) from Parkinson's disease (PD) at early stage. Methods SPECT imaging with ~ 99mTc-TRODAT-1 was conducted in 28 patients with PD at early stage, 15 patients with ET, 8 patients with ET combined with PD and 15 healthy subjects. The interesting regions including bilateral striatum (ST) and occipital lobe (OC) were figured, and the radioactivity counts of these three regions were obtained by computer automatically. The ratio of specific radioactivity uptake and asymmetry indexes of the four groups were calculated and compared.Results The ratio of specific radioactivity uptake was 0.58?0.16 (left side) and 0.56?0.32 (right side) in healthy group, 0.55?0.22 (left side) and 0.56?0.24 (right side) in ET group. There was no significant difference between the two groups. The ratio of specific radioactivity uptake was 0.44?0.33 (left side) and 0.45?0.18 (right side) in ET-PD group, 0.40?0.33 (side contralateral to onset or more severe limbs) and 0.51?0.12 (ipsilateral side) in PD group. The ratios of specific radioactivity uptake in PD and ET-PD groups were significantly lower than those in ET and healthy groups ( P

Objective To investigate the distribution and severity of cerebral artery stenosis and the prognosis in elderly patients with acute cerebral infarction using digital subtraction angiography (DSA). Methods The 432 elderly patients with acute cerebral ischemia infarction underwent DSA,and they were divided into two groups: elderly group (n= 320) and non-elderly group (n= 112). The characteristics of distribution and severity of cerebral artery stenosis, the relationship between artery stenosis and relative risk factors, and the prognosis of acute cerebral infarction were analyzed.Results In elderly group, 270 cases (84.3%) had intra- and extra- cranial artery stenosis, of which 98 patients (30.6%) with pure extracranial arterial stenosis, 132 patients (41.3%) with combined extra- and intra-cranial artery stenosis. They were both significantly higher than the corresponding data in non-elderly group [23 cases (20.5%) and 28 cases (25%), P＜0.05 and 0.01]. The prevalences of moderate and severe cerebral artery stenosises were higher in elderly group than in nonelderly group [224 locations (52.1%) vs. 51 locations (40.8%), P＜0. 05]. The number of patients with previous history of cerebrovascular disease was much more and the prognosis was much worse in elderly group than in non-elderly group (both P＜0.05), Conclusions The elderly patients with cerebral infarction have severer cerebral artery stenosis, increased proportion of multivessel disease and poor prognosis. So it is very important to take aggressive treatment as soon as possible, and to make secondary prevention and effective rehabilitation so as to improve their prognosis.

Chronic cerebral hypoperfusion (CCH) is a common pathological change of central nervous system diseases and is closely associated with cognitive impairment. A number of studies have shown that inflammation is involved in the pathogenesis and progression of CCH-induced cognitive impairment. In the condition of CCH, the activation of inflammatory response in the brain can lead to a variety of pathological injuries, such as white matter lesions, blood-brain barrier destruction, degeneration and necrosis of hippocampal neurons, etc. Therefore, inhibition of inflammatory response is expected to provide a new therapeutic target for CCH-induced cognitive impairment. This article reviews the mechanism of inflammation in CCH-induced cognitive impairment.