Premium
Intermittent drop in blood flow velocity in the internal carotid artery and its branches
Author(s) -
Samii Cirus,
Diehl Rolf R.,
Berlit Peter
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of clinical ultrasound
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.272
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1097-0096
pISSN - 0091-2751
DOI - 10.1002/jcu.10037
Subject(s) - medicine , hemodynamics , cardiology , stenosis , cardiac cycle , transcranial doppler , blood flow , radiology , angiography , internal carotid artery , thrombus , ultrasound , artery
Extracranial Doppler sonography and transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD) allow the assessment and monitoring of hemodynamic and embolic events in cerebrovascular diseases. We describe an unusual hemodynamic phenomenon in a patient with intracranial carotid siphon stenosis and no clinical symptoms of stenosis. TCD examination suggested and angiography confirmed stenosis of the left internal carotid artery siphon. TCD examination revealed a sudden, intermittent drop in blood flow velocity in both the prestenotic and poststenotic segments of the internal carotid artery, whereas cardiac hemodynamic parameters were unaffected. Embolic signals were detected in the poststenotic vessels only. We speculate that such sonographic findings may be caused by intermittent vessel occlusions due to the reversible displacement of an intraluminal thrombus in relation to the cardiac cycle. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound 30:98–102, 2002; DOI 10.1002/jcu.10037