[Positron tomographic study of the behavior of 13N-labeled nitrous oxide in the human brain].

The synthesis of 13N-labelled nitrous oxide was made following NICKLES' method. After a partial denitrogenisation by breathing pure oxygen for 3 min, the subject inhaled a bolus of 13N-labelled nitrous oxide diluted in 2 l of oxygen (a mixture of 5% 13N2O and 95% O2). After an apnea of 30 sec the subject began to breathe in a closed respiratory system containing a mixture of 10% N2O and 90% O2. Eight images of the brain taken at level OM + 3 in 4 subjects showed an important uptake in the cerebellum and in the frontal and temporal cortex. Six min after inhalation of the bolus, the radioactivity in the cerebellum showed a clear decrease, whereas little decrease was observed in the frontal cortex and only a slight decrease in the temporal cortex. In order to suppress the activity due to the vascular comportment, an experiment was performed under the same conditions as the previous one, but using sodium pyrophosphate containing tin and 25 mCi of Tc-99m pertechnetate. The correction factors vary from 0.394 to 0.894 depending on the R.O.I. The activity curves after correction showed a predominance in the frontal cortex. It can therefore be concluded that some specific zones of the brain are receptive to N2O and in particular the frontal cortex. These results were compared with the data obtained from the electrophysiological recording of the frontal region of the brain (C.N.V.: Contingent Negative Variation).