Increased heterogeneity of brain perfusion predicts the development of cerebrovascular accidents

The heterogeneity of brain perfusion is related to the risk factors of thromboembolic events such as antiphospholipid syndrome. However, the effectiveness of brain perfusion heterogeneity as a marker to predict thromboembolic events has not been confirmed. Our objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of brain perfusion heterogeneity as a marker to predict the development of cerebrovascular accidents. In this retrospective cohort study, patients who underwent Tc-99m ECD brain SPECT from January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2008 were included. Each study was reoriented with the Talairach space provided by the NeuroGam Software package. Heterogeneity of brain perfusion was measured as the coefficient of variation. The study outcome was the risk of cerebral vascular accidents in patients with increased heterogeneity of brain perfusion between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2015. A multiple Cox proportional hazards model was applied to evaluate the risk of cerebrovascular accidents. A total of 70 patients were included in this study. The median age was 39 years (range, 28 – 59 years). There were 55 (78.6%) women. For increased heterogeneity of brain perfusion, the hazard ratio of cerebrovascular accidents was 2.68 (95% CI, 1.41 – 5.09; P = .003) after adjusting for age, sex, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and dyslipidemia. Our study suggests that increased heterogeneity of brain perfusion is associated with an increased risk of cerebrovascular accidents.