Doppler sonography for the assessment of central mandibular blood flow

In this study we evaluated the role of Doppler sonography in the assessment of central mandibular blood flow We assessed the characteristics of blood flow in the mental artery, the larger terminal branch of the inferior alveo lar artery, in 30 healthy volunteers equally distributed in the age groups 20-39, 40-59 and over 60 years. We used a DWL Multi-Dop X4(R) Doppler sonog raphy machine (DWL GmbH) with an 8 MHz probe applied intraorally, The varia bles analysed were patency, time averaged maximum velocity (TAMV), pulsatil ity index (PI), discomfort and the duration of the procedure, All the arter ies analysed were patent. The TAMV and PI decreased as age increased and th ere were significant differences between the age groups: TAMV (P = 0.01), P I (P = 0.006), Pair-wise comparisons also showed significant differences (P < 0.05) between the 20-39 and the over 60 age group, 40-59 and the over 60 age group for TAMV, and between the 20-39 and over 60 age group for PI. Th e difference in measurements between the right and left sides in individual patients was not significant. The assessment took about 20 minutes and cau sed little discomfort. The technique is simple and could potentially be use d to influence clinical decisions.