Clinical utility of SPECT in the diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injury: A systematic review.

ABSTRACT:
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a devastating problem with serious morbidity and mortality. This systematic review evaluated the global literature for single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) use in TBI. From 1600 studies identified, 71 articles, 19 longitudinal and 52 cross-sectional studies, met rigorous standardized inclusion criteria. Of these, 100% of longitudinal and 98% of cross sectional studies showed SPECT lesion localization not detected by CT or MRI. Almost 80% of longitudinal and 81% of cross sectional articles showed significant correlation between SPECT and neuropsychological or neurological outcomes. This review highlights the extensive literature base for SPECT in evaluating TBI.