Yukihisa Suzuki, Motohiro Kiyosawa, Masato Wakakura, Kiichi Ishiwata, Keiichi Oda and Kenji Ishii
Dystonia is a syndrome characterized by sustained muscle contractions causing twisting or abnormal posturing. Secondary dystonia is well known subsequent to lesions of the brain. A patient was a 50-year-old man, and he experienced traffic accident. He suffered bilateral hemiparesis by cervical vertebrae damage according to the accident. Although the organic brain damage was not found, left lateral hemidystonia and blepharospasm were observed after injury. We measured cerebral glucose metabolism of the patient using positron emission tomography with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose, and compared with 20 normal subjects (10 men and 10 women; mean age, 50.9 ± 17.1 years). Cerebral glucose hypermetabolism was observed in both sides of the thalamus, putamen and primary somatosensory area of patient compared with normal subjects. The results of functional imaging studies of dystonia are often interpreted using the present anatomical model of information flow in the basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical motor circuit. Glucose hypermetabolism in the thalamus, putamen, and primary somatosensory area, may be reflecting existence of dystonic diseases.