TRANSCRANIAL DOPPLER SONOGRAPHY AND COLOR -CODED INTRACRANIAL DUPLEX SONOGRAPHY IN PATIENTS WITH EXTRACRANIAL CEREBRAL-ARTERY STENOSES

One hundred and fifty-eight patients (99 men and 59 women) aged 20 to 76 years, all with extracranial cerebral artery stenoses, were submitt ed to both transcranial Doppler sonography and color-coded intracrania l duplex sonography in order to establish whether there were any diffe rences between the two methods in their assessment of the degree of se verity of stenosis of the internal carotid artery and the resulting fl ow rate in the middle cerebral arteries. The degree of stenosis in the carotids was investigated with color duplex sonography and angiograph ically. II emerged that transcranial Doppler sonography permitted reli able conclusions as to the severity of the carotid stenosis only in th e case of complete occlusion. In contrast, the systolic flow rate in t he trunk of the middle cerebral artery as measured by means of color i ntracranial duplex sonography consistently decreased with increasing s everity the stenosis. In this group of patients, color duplex sonograp hy had clear advantages over angiography in the assessment of stenoses of the extracranial vessels supplying the brain. In particular, early stages of arteriosclerosis were detected more readily.