Transcranial Doppler detection of vertebrobasilar vasospasm following subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Transcranial Doppler sonography is of established value in the detection and monitoring of middle cerebral artery vasospasm. Little information exists on the utility of transcranial Doppler for detection of posterior circulation vasospasm.Cerebral angiography and conventional hand-held transcranial Doppler sonography were compared to determine sensitivity and specificity of transcranial Doppler for detection of vertebral and basilar artery vasospasm.Of 59 consecutive subarachnoid hemorrhage patients with transcranial Doppler angiogram correlations, 42 underwent posterior circulation angiography to evaluate 64 vertebral arteries and 42 basilar arteries during the period of risk for vasospasm and had technically adequate transcranial Doppler examinations within 24 hours of the angiogram. A mean flow velocity of 60 cm/s and above was indicative of both vertebral and basilar artery vasospasm. For the vertebral artery, there were 7 true-positive test results, 42 true-negatives, 6 false-positives (unknown cause...