• Adnan Khan, Maher Saqqur, Ashfaq Shuaib, Khurshid Khan, Vijay K Sharma, Alejandro Brunser, Jürgen Eggers, Robert Mikulik, Aristeidis H Katsanos, Theodore N Sergentanis, Konstantinos Vadikolias, Marta Rubiera, Reza Bavarsad Shahripour, Huy Thang Nguyen, Patricia Martínez-Sánchez, Apostolos Safouris, Ioannis Heliopoulos, Abdul Salam, Carol Derksen, Konstantinos Voumvourakis, Theodora Psaltopoulou, Anne W Alexandrov, Andrei V Alexandrov, Georgios Tsivgoulis, and CLOTBUST‐PRO Investigators.
• Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Khyber Medical University, Peshawar, Pakistan.
• J Neuroimaging. 2024 Jul 1; 34 (4): 430437430-437.

Background And PurposeTranscranial Doppler (TCD) identifies acute stroke patients with arterial occlusion where treatment may not effectively open the blocked vessel. This study aimed to examine the clinical utility and prognostic value of TCD flow findings in patients enrolled in a multicenter prospective study (CLOTBUST-PRO).MethodsPatients enrolled with intracranial occlusion on computed tomography angiography (CTA) who underwent urgent TCD evaluation before intravenous thrombolysis was included in this analysis. TCD findings were assessed using the mean flow velocity (MFV) ratio, comparing the reciprocal ratios of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) depths bilaterally (affected MCA-to-contralateral MCA MFV [aMCA/cMCA MFV ratio]).ResultsA total of 222 patients with intracranial occlusion on CTA were included in the study (mean age: 64 ± 14 years, 62% men). Eighty-eight patients had M1 MCA occlusions; baseline mean National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score was 16, and a 24-hour mean NIHSS score was 10 points. An aMCA/cMCA MFV ratio of <.6 had a sensitivity of 99%, specificity of 16%, positive predictive value (PV) of 60%, and negative PV of 94% for identifying large vessel occlusion (LVO) including M1 MCA, terminal internal carotid artery, or tandem ICA/MCA. Thrombolysis in Brain Ischemia scale, with (grade ≥1) compared to without flow (grade 0), showed a sensitivity of 17.1%, specificity of 86.9%, positive PV of 62%, and negative PV of 46% for identifying LVO.ConclusionsTCD is a valuable modality for evaluating arterial circulation in acute ischemic stroke patients, demonstrating significant potential as a screening tool for intravenous/intra-arterial lysis protocols.© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Neuroimaging published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society of Neuroimaging.

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