Abstract:
Our purpose was to investigate, by magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy, the metabolite changes in the brains of subjects in the
shoemaking industry who had been chronically exposed to organic solvents. A total of 49 male subjects and 30 age-matched healthy
volunteers underwent detailed neurological and psychiatric examinations. All subjects had long-echo [repetition time (TR) 2000 ms, echo
time (TE) 136 ms] single-voxel MR spectroscopy. Voxels (15 15 15 mm3
) were placed in the parietal white matter, thalamus, and basal
ganglia. N-acetylaspartate (NAA)/creatine (Cr) and choline (Cho)/Cr ratios were calculated. There was no significant difference between
the study subjects and the control group in NAA/Cr ratios obtained from thalamus, basal ganglia, and parietal white matter. Cho/Cr ratios
in thalamus, basal ganglia, and parietal white matter were found to be significantly increased compared to controls. There was a positive correlation
between basal ganglia Cho/Cr ratio and duration of exposure (r 0.63). MR spectroscopy should be performed to reveal metabolite changes
and determine the degree of brain involvement in solvent-related industry workers.
