Radionuclide angiography and Doppler sonography to detect patients with cerebrovascular disease. A correlation with radiographic angiography.

Cerebral radionuclide angiography with 99mTc pertechnetate (RNA) and directional Doppler sonography (DS) were employed to study patients with cerebrovascular disease (CBVD). The 86 patients investigated were divided following radiographic angiography (RGA) into normals (n = 26) and into patients with intracranial (n = 22) and extracranial (n = 38) vascular lesions. Of the patients with angiographically demonstrated CBVD, RNA detected 90%, DS 53.3%. The combined evaluation had a sensitivity of 93.3%. If intracranial arterial disease was excluded, the sensitivity of the studies was 92.1% for RNA and 84.2% for DS and combined evaluation had a sensitivity of 97.4%. The diagnostic accuracy by combined evaluation was 93.8% for the extracranial arterial lesions if the clinical findings were also used in patients with normal RGA pattern. RNA and DS complement each other as RNA contributes to the detection of intracranial blood flow alterations indicating vascular changes in either the extra- or intra-cranial vessels and helps confirm and complete DS findings.