USE OF INTRAVENOUS CONTRAST MATERIAL IN TRANSCRANIAL SONOGRAPHY

Rationale and Objectives. The appearance of the intracranial vasculatu re was compared on power and color Doppler ultrasound) (US) scans obta ined with and without a microbubble contrast agent. Materials and Meth ods. Nine patients (three men, six women) aged 42-70 years (mean age, 53 years) participated in the study. Seven patients underwent both col or Doppler US and power Doppler US before and after intravenous admini stration of contrast agent, and two underwent only color Doppler US. A ll patients had previously undergone cerebral angiography. Results. Be fore contrast material was administered, power Doppler US was more sen sitive than color Doppler US in the detection of intracranial vessels (P < .05); neither technique depicted the entire circle of Willis in e ight of nine patients. Postcontrast power Doppler US depicted more vas cular segments than postcontrast color Doppler US (P < .01) or precont rast power Doppler US (P < .01). Use of intravenous contrast material enabled the entire circle of Willis to be evaluated from a single temp oral bone acoustic window with both power Doppler US and color Doppler US in all patients. Contrast-enhanced power Doppler US depicted vesse ls not shown by enhanced color Doppler US. Conclusion. Contrast-enhanc ed power Doppler US depicted better demonstrated specific vascular seg ments, and provided better vascular definition of the intracranial vas culature than contrast-enhanced color Doppler US or unenhanced power D oppler US.