AUTHOR=Denier Niklaus , Schmidt André , Gerber Hana , Schmid Otto , Riecher-Rössler Anita , Wiesbeck Gerhard , Huber Christian G., Lang Undine E., Radue Ernst-Wilhelm , Walter Marc , Borgwardt Stefan TITLE=Association of Frontal Gray Matter Volume and Cerebral Perfusion in Heroin Addiction: A Multimodal Neuroimaging Study JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry VOLUME=4 YEAR=2013 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00135 DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00135 ISSN=1664-0640 ABSTRACT=
Structure and function are closely related in the healthy human brain. In patients with chronic heroin exposure, brain imaging studies have identified long-lasting changes in gray matter (GM) volume. More recently, we showed that acute application of heroin in dependent patients results in hypoperfusion of fronto-temporal areas compared with the placebo condition. However, the relationship between structural and cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes in heroin addiction has not yet been investigated. Moreover, it is not known whether there is any interaction between the chronic structural changes and the short and long-term effects on perfusion caused by heroin. Using a double-blind, within-subject design, heroin or placebo (saline) was administered to 14 heroin-dependent patients from a stable heroin-assisted treatment program, in order to observe acute short-term effects. Arterial spin labeling (ASL) was used to calculate perfusion quantification maps in both treatment conditions, while Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM) was conducted to calculate regional GM density. VBM and ASL data were used to calculate homologous correlation fields by Biological Parametric Mapping (BPM) and a whole-brain Pearson