Reduced CBF recovery detected by longitudinal 3D-SSP SPECT analyses predicts outcome of postoperative patients after subarachnoid haemorrhage

Summary The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of cerebral blood flow (CBF) recovery obtained from brain single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) images on postoperative outcome after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Twenty-nine patients who had undergone surgical clipping for ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysms were analyzed prospectively. Routine measurements of CBF were performed using technetium-99m hexamethyl propyleneamine oxine SPECT on days 4 and 14 after SAH. Regional voxel data analyzed by three dimensional stereotactic surface projection (3D-SSP) were compared between patients and age-matched normal database (NDB). In 3D-SSP analysis of all patients, cortical hypoperfusion around the surgical site in bilateral frontal lobes was evident on day 4 (P