[The transcranial Doppler in the adult. Preliminary results in 31 patients]. / Le Doppler transcrânien chez l'adulte. Résultats préliminaires chez 31 patients.

ABSTRACT

Non-invasive transcranial Doppler US investigation in adult patients was first described by Aaslid et al. (1982). The apparatus consists in a 2 MHz bidirectional pulsed Doppler with spectrum analyser. Middle and anterior cerebral arteries were insonated by transtemporal exploration, basilar artery by occipital foramen. The criteria of identification were position and angulation of the probe, direction of the flow, depth of sample volume. The authors present a first series of 31 patients, all with cervical CW Doppler and B-mode Echo. The percentage of identification was MCA 72%; ACA 69%; BA 54%. Some clinical cases are illustrated. The interest of the method is emphasized in spite of constraints depending on probe position and anatomical variability of the circle of Willis ambulatory and non-invasive methods; assessment of intracranial blood flow in various conditions cerebral ischemia and infarction, intracerebral angioma; complementarity with other non-invasive and non-expensive techniques EEG and cervical US investigation.