Scans of Gulf War Veterans Show Damage - brain chemistry research findings - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Oct, 2000

Brain scans of veterans who returned sick from the Gulf War show evidence of significant brain-cell loss, according to University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas researchers. Using magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy--highly specialized scans that measure chemical levels inside the brain--they found evidence of brain damage that causes a variety of symptoms, including joint pain, fatigue, dizziness, and mental confusion. MR spectroscopy explores brain chemistry by utilizing radio waves to measure intracellular concentrations of protons and estimate the concentrations of common brain chemicals.

Previous magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on the veterans found no visible structural changes to the brain. By using MR spectroscopy, the researchers were able to look at brain chemical levels, which show biochemical and physiological changes to the brain.

In 1997, chief of epidemiology Robert Haley and his colleagues defined three Gulf War syndromes in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Syndrome 1, commonly found in veterans who wore pesticide-containing flea collars, is characterized by impaired cognition. Syndrome 2, called confusion-ataxia, the most severe and debilitating of the three, is found among veterans who said they were exposed to low-level nerve gas and experienced side effects from anti-nerve gas, or pyridostigmine (PB) tablets. Syndrome 3, characterized by central pain, is found in veterans who wore insect repellent with high concentrations of DEET and experienced side effects from the PB tablets.

The MR spectroscopy study found that veterans with Syndrome 2 had 18% less N-acetylaspartate (NAA) in the right basal ganglia and 26% less NAA in the brain stem, compared with healthy veterans of the same age, sex, and educational level. NAA is the brain chemical that indicates the number of functioning brain cells in the area being scanned. Finding less NAA in the deep brain structures of the sick veterans implies that many brain cells have either been destroyed or become too damaged to function. The varying magnitude of loss of brain function explains why some veterans are sicker than others are, while some suffer only mild symptoms.

As a consequence of having the greatest loss of brain cells, veterans with Syndrome 2 have the highest rate of occupational disability, report the worst vertigo attacks, and performed lowest on objective medical tests of brain function. Veterans with Syndromes 1 and 3 generally are still able to work, have less dizziness, performed better on the medical tests, and were found to have less severe loss of brain cells on the brain scans.