Blood Flow Volume Measurement in Cervical and Intracranial Arteries using Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Angiography and Duplex Sonography (Bocaccia) - A Prospective Observational Study.

Purpose:  Cerebral blood flow volume is an important factor for the accurate diagnosis of neurovascular diseases and treatment indication. This study aims to assess correlations of blood flow volume measurements in cervical and intracranial arteries between duplex sonography and quantitative magnetic resonance angiography (qMRA).

Materials And Methods:  Consecutive patients with suspicion of cerebral vascular pathology underwent qMRA and duplex sonography of cervical and intracranial arteries with measurement of blood flow volume in bilateral common (CCA), internal (ICA) and external carotid arteries, vertebral and basilar arteries, middle, anterior, posterior cerebral and posterior communicating arteries using 2 different ultrasound machines.

Factors influencing quality of life in patients followed in the neurosonology laboratory for carotid stenosis.

Background: Quality of life (QoL) is one of the main endpoints in stroke prevention or acute stroke treatment studies. The aim of the current study was to identify risk factors affecting the QoL of patients with carotid stenosis in stroke prevention.

Methods: Self-sufficient patients (50-80 years of age) with ≥20% carotid artery stenosis followed in the neurosonology laboratory, and without any severe illnesses within the last 12 months, dementia, or psychiatric disorders were selected for the study after signing informed consent.

SONOlysis in prevention of Brain InfaRctions During Internal carotid Endarterectomy (SONOBIRDIE) trial - study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) is a beneficial procedure for selected patients with an internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis. Surgical risk of CEA varies from between 2 and 15%. The aim of the study is to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of sonolysis (continual transcranial Doppler monitoring, TCD) using a 2-MHz diagnostic probe with maximal diagnostic energy on the reduction of the incidence of stroke, transient ischemic attack (TIA) and brain infarction detected using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) by the activation of the endogenous fibrinolytic system during CEA.

Detection of intracranial arterial stenosis using transcranial color-coded duplex sonography, computed tomographic angiography, and digital subtraction angiography.

Objectives: The aim of this retrospective study was to compare intracranial arterial stenosis in patients with stroke using 3 different methods: transcranial color-coded duplex sonography, computed tomographic (CT) angiography, and digital subtraction angiography in a common clinical practice.

Methods: Sixty-seven patients (47 male and 20 female; age range, 23-79 years; mean age ± SD, 62.0 ± 9.

Distal enlargement of the optic nerve sheath in the hyperacute stage of intracerebral haemorrhage.

Aims: Optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) enlargement is detectable in patients with increased intracranial pressure. The aim was to detect an enlargement of the ONSD using optic nerve sonography in patients with acute intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) within 6 h of the onset of symptoms.

Methods: Thirty-one acute ICH patients, 15 age-matched acute ischaemic stroke patients and 16 age-matched healthy volunteers were enrolled consecutively in this prospective bi-centre observational study.

Changes in hemocoagulation in acute stroke patients after one-hour sono-thrombolysis using a diagnostic probe.

The aim was to monitor the changes in hemocoagulation parameters in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients after sono-thrombolysis of the occluded middle cerebral artery using a duplex transcranial probe with 2.0-MHz frequency in Doppler mode. Sixteen AIS patients indicated for intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) (8 males; mean age 68.

Changes in haemocoagulation in healthy volunteers after a 1-hour thrombotripsy using a diagnostic 2-4 MHz transcranial probe.

Introduction: The aim was to monitor the changes in haemocoagulation parameters in healthy volunteers after a thrombotripsy with 1-hour transcranial Doppler monitoring using a 2-4 MHz probe.

Materials And Methods: About 10 healthy volunteers underwent a 1-hour thrombotripsy of the middle cerebral artery (MCA), thrombotripsy of the radial artery and a standard 20-min neurosonologic examination (NSE) in 2-week intervals. Platelet count, aPTT, prothrombin time, fibrinogen, D-dimers, tPA, FDP, alpha-2-antiplasmin (AP), plasminogen, PAI-1 antigen, time of euglobulin clot lysis (ECL), homocysteine, and lipoprotein (a) were examined before, at the end and 24 h after a thrombotripsy.

Reproducibility of sonographic measurement of the substantia nigra.

The aim of this study was to evaluate inter-reader, intra-investigator and inter-investigator reproducibility and correlations in the assessment of substantia nigra (SN) echogenicity and area measurement by a physician-sonographer (PS), a sonographic laboratory assistant (SLA) and a physician without sonographic experience (PN). A total of 22 patients with extrapyramidal symptoms were examined using transcranial sonography (TCS). SN images were encoded and evaluated by the three readers.