To assess the clinical significance of transtentorial diaschisis (TTD) as demonstrated by 1-123 HIPDM brain imaging, SPECT andsol;or planar images of 35 patients with stroke, 26 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), 2 patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), and 1 patient with a schizoaffective disorder were analyzed. TTD was observed in 21 of the 35 patients with strokes. In 13 stroke patients, TTD was associated with large infarcts in the middle cerebral artery (MCA) territory; in the remaining 8 stroke patients, TTD was associated with internal capsule andsol;or basal ganglia infarcts. TTD was not associated with small occipital or parietal infarcts. Despite cortical perfusion decrements, TTD was not seen in the AD patients, the CJD patients, or the patient with schizoaffective disorder. It is concluded that 1) TTD frequently occurs following cerebral infarct of the MCA territory (60percnt; of the patients in this sample); 2) absence of TTD in the presence of a large cerebral perfusion abnormality may represent neuronal dysfunction of the cerebral cortex; and 3) the presence of TTD without a significant cortical perfusion abnormality may indicate basal ganglia andsol;or internal capsule infarct.
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