Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography · 1993 · 21 citations · 0 references
MedicineNeurosciencePsychiatryDiagnostic ImagingNeuropsychiatryNeuropsychologyBrain ImagingFunctional NeuroimagingNeuropsychiatric AssessmentNeuropsychological AssessmentPositron Emission TomographySchizophrenia Spectrum DisordersCerebral Glucose UtilizationGlucose Metabolism ImagingMetabolic Brain ImagingMetabolic ImagingOccipital CortexPet TracersTest-retest ReliabilityTest-retest Reproducibility
OBJECTIVE: Reliability of assessment is important in any kind of neuropsychiatric study, but is particularly pivotal in schizophrenia research where symptom instability is common. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two fluorodeoxyglucose PET scans, 1 week apart, were carried out in schizophrenic patients while they were performing a simple visual discrimination task. Subject and scan conditions were held constant. Regional metabolic rates of glucose utilization were calculated as absolute and scaled; they were compared using correlational statistics. RESULTS: Average differences between scans were 5-9% for the parietal and occipital cortices, but 1-3% for other cortical areas, differences comparable with reported variances in normal controls. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that test-retest variance in metabolic imaging in schizophrenia is relatively low and that task performance increases metabolic stability in brain areas unrelated to task performance.