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Reductions in Regional Cerebral Blood Flow Associated with Chronic Consumption of Alcohol
Author(s) -
ROGERS ROBERT L.,
MEYER JOHN STIRLING,
SHAW TERRY G.,
MORTEL KARL F.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1983.tb02198.x
Subject(s) - medicine , cerebral blood flow , diabetes mellitus , risk factor , abstinence , alcohol , blood flow , alcohol consumption , dementia , cardiology , anesthesia , disease , endocrinology , psychiatry , biochemistry , chemistry
Neurotoxic effects of habitual alcohol consumption were investigated by correlating the subjects' estimates of abstinence or frequency and amount of alcohol consumed with measurements of gray matter blood flow utilizing the 133 Xe inhalation method. Two hundred and twenty‐two subjects were studied, including 136 healthy subjects, 82 subjects with well‐established risk factors for stroke (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, heart disease, and diabetes mellitus), and four subjects with chronic alcoholic dementia of the Wernicke‐Korsakoff type. Subjects were classified according to average quantitative amounts of alcohol consumed per day, week, or month for the past five years. Comparisons of mean values for hemispheric gray matter blood flow indicated significant inverse relationships with the average amounts of alcohol consumed. This linear relationship occurred regardless of whether or not other risk factors were present and indicated that alcohol itself was a risk factor reducing gray matter blood flow and had additive effects of reducing cerebral blood flow further when combined with other risk factors. Patients who had chronic Wernicke‐Korsakoff syndrome had the most severely reduced blood flow levels, as might be predicted from extrapolation of the regression line comparing cerebral blood flow values with the degree of chronic alcohol consumption.