rCBF Measurement by One-point Venous Sampling with the ARG Method

Abstract

We investigated the possibility of using venous blood sampling instead of arterial blood sampling for the current method of ARG(autoradiography) used to determine regional cerebral blood flow(rCBF) on the basis of one session of arterial blood sampling and SPECT. For this purpose, the ratio of the arterial blood radioactivity count to the venous blood radioactivity count, the coefficient of variation, and the correlation and differences between arterial blood-based rCBF and venous blood-based rCBF were analyzed. The coefficient of variation was lowest(4.1%) 20 minutes after injection into the dorsum manus. When the relationship between venous and arterial blood counts was analyzed, arterial blood counts correlated well with venous blood counts collected at the dorsum manus 20 or 30 minutes after intravenous injection and with venous blood counts collected at the wrist 20 minutes after intravenous injection(r=0.97 or higher). The difference from rCBF determined on the basis of arterial blood was smallest(0.7) for rCBF determined on the basis of venous blood collected at the dorsum manus 20 minutes after intravenous injection.