Journal of neuroimaging : official journal of the American Society of Neuroimaging
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Case Reports Comparative Study
Transcranial color-coded real-time sonography of intracranial veins. Normal values of blood flow velocities and findings in superior sagittal sinus thrombosis.
Sonographic findings in patients with superior sagittal sinus thrombosis were compared to those in healthy adults. Two patients with angiographically verified superior sagittal sinus thrombosis were examined by transcranial color-coded real-time sonography (TCCS) after intravenous application of a pulmonary stable ultrasound contrast agent. For comparison, 10 patients without venous pathology had contrast-enhanced TCCS; in addition, 30 healthy adults had plain TCCS to determine the identification rate for deep and superficial venous segments and to define normal values of venous blood flow velocities. ⋯ In the 2 patients with sagittal sinus thrombosis a distinct increase of blood flow velocity was recorded from the straight sinus (83 and 92 cm/sec), most likely reflecting collateral circulation. These preliminary data indicate that TCCS and particularly contrast-enhanced TCCS permit identification and blood flow measurements within the deep and occasionally, the superficial venous system. TCCS may contribute to an assessment of hemodynamic repercussions of venous thrombosis and may indicate the risk of venous infarction and hemorrhage.
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Transcranial duplex color-flow sonography provides visualization of intracranial structures, and measures angle-corrected blood flow velocity in the basal cerebral arteries of adults. In 44 patients with central nervous system disease, the oblique diameters of the third and the middle part of the lateral ventricle were measured by transcranial duplex color-flow sonography using a system with a 2.5-MHz transducer, and compared to computed tomography measurements. The correlation coefficients for the third and lateral ventricle measurements were r = 0.83 (p < 0.0001, N = 38) and 0.73 (p < 0.0001, N = 78), respectively. ⋯ The intraobserver reproducibility correlation coefficient was r = 0.93 (p < 0.0001, N = 22) for the lateral ventricle in 12 patients. In 49 healthy volunteers the oblique diameters of the lateral and third ventricles were age dependent, measuring 16.7 +/- 2.3 mm and 4.8 +/- 1.9 mm, respectively, in those younger than 59 years, compared to 19.0 +/- 2.9 mm and 7.6 +/- 2.1 mm in those 60 years or older. Therefore, transcranial duplex color-flow sonography measures noninvasively the third and the lateral ventricle in adults.
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Comparative Study
Peak velocity overestimation and linear-array spectral Doppler.
Ultrasound instruments are used to evaluate blood flow velocities in the human body. Most clinical instruments perform velocity calculations based on the Doppler principle and measure the frequency shift of a reflected ultrasound beam. Doppler-only instruments use single-frequency, single-crystal transducers. ⋯ Angles of insonation were 30, 45, 60, and 70 degrees. The single-frequency, single-crystal transducers (PC Dop 842, 2-MHz pulsed-wave, 4-MHz continuous-wave) provided acceptably accurate velocity estimates at all tested velocities independent of the angle of insonation. All duplex Doppler instruments with linear-array transducers (Philips P700, 5.0-MHz; Hewlett-Packard Sonos 1000, 7.5-MHz; ATL Ultramark 9 HDI, 7.5-MHz) exhibited a consistent overestimation of the true flow velocity due to increasing intrinsic spectral broadening with increasing angle of insonation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)