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Power Doppler Imaging and Color Doppler Flow Imaging for the Evaluation of Normal and Pathological Vertebral Arteries
Author(s) -
Ries Stefan,
Steinke Wolfgang,
Devuyst Gerald,
Artemis Nikos,
Valikovics Attila,
Hennerici Michael
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of neuroimaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1552-6569
pISSN - 1051-2284
DOI - 10.1111/jon19988271
Subject(s) - medicine , radiology , color doppler , power doppler , magnetic resonance imaging , doppler effect , blood flow , ultrasound , angiography , ultrasonography , physics , astronomy
Recently, an ultrasound method for vascular applications using the amplitude of the reflected echosignal for the generation of intravascular color signals has been introduced. We compared the utility of this power Doppler imaging (PDI) with conventional color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) for examination of vertebral arteries (VA) Forty‐nine patients with signs and symptoms suggesting ischemia within the posterior circulation were evaluated. Quality of blood flow visualization by PDI and CDFI at the different VA segments was classified according to a four point scale. Furthermore, combined sonographic findings were correlated with the results of digital substraction and/or magnetic resonance angiography (DSA, MRA). Power Doppler imaging provided a significantly superior visualization of the intertransversal VA, whereas display of the intracranial V4 segment was superior 1ignificantly on CDFI. Both methods were complementary for the evaluation of the VA at the origin. With respect to the angiographic findings, combined CDFI and PDI achieved a sensitivIty of 90.63% and a specificity of 97.22% for the differentiation of healthy and pathologic VAs. Power Doppler imaging is complementary to CDFI for the sonographic assessment of VA disease. Combined use of PDI and CDFI achieves a high sensitivIty and specificity, thus increasing diagnostic confidence.