Quantitative PET findings in patients with posttraumatic anosmia.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate quantitative positron emission tomography (PET) findings, particularly from orbitofrontal cortex, in patients with posttraumatic anosmia.

SETTING

Neuropsychology outpatient clinic and university brain imaging center.

SUBJECTS: Eleven patients with head injury resulting in severe anosmia and 11 controls matched for age. All 11 head-injured patients had their head injuries at least 2 years before involvement in the study.

MEASURES: Regional cerebral glucose metabolism was measured with PET.

RESULTS

Quantitative evaluation of PET findings for anosmic patients as a group showed orbitofrontal hypometabolism compared with controls. Decreased activity was also noted in mesial temporal lobe. Activity in subcortical white matter was essentially identical between groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings strongly suggest that posttraumatic anosmia is closely associated with hypometabolism in the orbitofrontal cortex and the medial prefrontal cortex. The results also underscore the importance of posttraumatic anosmia as a clinical sign of orbitofrontal damage, as has been shown previously with neuroSPECT (single photon emission computed tomography).