Cerebrovascular diseases
-
Cerebrovascular diseases · Sep 1999
Clinical TrialNoninvasive assessment of the circle of Willis in cerebral ischemia: the potential of CT angiography and contrast-enhanced transcranial color-coded duplexsonography.
Thirty-four patients with acute hemispheric ischemic strokes underwent both CT angiography and contrast-enhanced transcranial color-coded duplexsonography (TCCD) to study the effectiveness of the combined noninvasive techniques for evaluation of the circle of Willis. In 3/34 patients, CT angiography and contrast-enhanced TCCD demonstrated middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion, in 5 others MCA stenosis. A severe posterior cerebral artery stenosis was missed by CT angiography. ⋯ In these patients, CT angiography was normal. CT angiography and contrast-enhanced TCCD are complementary noninvasive diagnostic tools. Disagreements between the diagnostic findings of these methods still need further evaluation by digital subtraction angiography.