Regional cerebral blod flow studied by xenon-133. Intra-arterial injection studies and inhalation studies using emission tomography.

A survey of the Xenon-133 techniques for measurement of regional cerebral blood flow, rCBF, in man is presented. The intra-arterial Xe-133 injection method is very sensitive for detecting even small hyperemic areas, but cannot "see" smaller ischemic areas. The Xe-133 inhalation (or i.v. inj.) technique is insensitive both to hyperemia and ischemia yielding essentially only a mean flow value. A new rapidly moving single photon tomograph following D. Kuhl's principle is presented applicable to Xe-133. Preliminary clinical data show that this technique is able to detect ischemic areas both with Xe-133 intra-arterial injection and with Xe-133 inhalation. The practical and economic advantages of Xe-133 or Xe-127 tomography over positron tomography for rCBF are discussed.