a SPECT scan to confirm this.
Quote:
New Diagnostic Tools Needed
Dr. Ronald Van Heertum, of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, addressed the role of functional brain imaging in the diagnosis of chronic CNS Lyme disease.[4] The need for such adjunctive diagnostic tools stems from the often nonspecific neurobehavioral symptoms presented by patients with chronic Lyme disease.
CT and MRI scans often may not reveal abnormalities in these patients. But functional brain imaging, particularly SPECT imaging, shows promise as a contributory adjunctive diagnostic technique, based on the assumption that brain blood and metabolism are tightly coupled.[5] The most up-to-date SPECT scans use a triple-headed machine, but Dr. Van Heertum suggested that dual-headed machines also may produce useful images.
In about 70% of chronic Lyme disease patients with cogntive symptoms, brain SPECT scans typically reveal a pattern of global hypoperfusion in a heterogeneous distribution through the white matter.[6] This pattern is not specific for Lyme disease; it can also be seen in other CNS syndromes such as HIV encephalopathy, viral encephalopathy, chronic cocaine use, and vasculitides. However, this pattern is different from what one would see with normal controls, patients with primary depression, patients with Alzheimer's disease, and patients with focal brain damage as in stroke.
Dr. Van Heertum presented a recent study from Columbia University, conducted with Drs. Lestor Johnson and Vitale Furman, of 20 patients with chronic Lyme disease and 7 normal controls whose brain SPECT scans were subjected to an SPM analysis. This quantitative approach to the evaluation of a SPECT image allows comparison of the blood flow in small areas or pixels of brain. Remarkably, the Lyme patients as a group (and each Lyme patient individually) had significantly reduced uptake of radioactive tracer (perfusion), primarily in the white matter. These results suggest that the primary pathology in Lyme disease is related to white matter dysfunction.
In conclusion, Dr. Van Heertum emphasized that SPECT imaging can have a role in Lyme disease by helping to demonstrate diffuse CNS involvement, differentiating Lyme disease from other syndromes that do not cause a diffuse process, and in monitoring the course of treatment.
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from
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/429455
I have been watching Dr. Amen on PPS lately and just read one of his books on brain imaging...this tool is very very good!
It will be confounded by Benzo use however, as well as opiates for pain.
I refer you to Dr. Amen's website:
http://www.amenclinics.com/
http://www.amenclinics.com/brain-sci...image-gallery/
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All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.-- Galileo Galilei
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Weezie looking at petunias 8.25.2017
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