We performed 1ndash;123-IMP SPECT brain imaging on seven mildly demented AIDS patients and seven normal subjects. In an attempt to detect and quantitate regions of decreased 1ndash;123-IMP uptake, pixel intensity histograms of normalized SPECT images at the basal ganglia level were analyzed for the fraction of pixels in the lowest quartile of the intensity range. This fraction (F) averaged 17.5percnt; (S.D. =4.6) in the AIDS group and 12.6percnt; (S.D. = 5.1) in the normal group (p .05). Six of the AIDS patients underwent neuropsychoiogical testing (NPT). NPT showed the patients to have a variety of mild abnormalities. Regression analysis of NPT scores versus F yielded a correlation coefficient of .80 (p .05). We conclude that analysis of 1ndash;123-IMP SPECT image pixel intensity distribution is potentially sensitive in detecting abnormalities associated with AIDS dementia and may correlate with the severity of dementia as measured by NPT.
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