[Quantitative assessment of carotid stenosis: comparison between Doppler ultrasound, spiral computed tomography angiography, magnetic resonance angiography and digital angiography].

Background: The North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial has confirmed the benefit of carotid endarterectomy in comparison to medical treatment in stroke prevention in symptomatic patients having a carotid stenosis of 70% or more. The Asymptomatic Carotid Atherosclerosis Study has concluded that the benefit of surgical treatment remains significant in asymptomatic patients with 60% (or more) stenosis of the ipsilateral internal carotid artery, when mortality rate remains inferior to 3%. In these two trials, angiography has been used to quantify the stenosis.

Feasibility and reliability of ankle/arm blood pressure index in preventive medicine.

Despite its potential usefulness for assessing preclinical atherosclerosis and cardiovascular risk, the ankle/arm blood pressure index (AAI) has not yet been the matter of study evaluating its feasibility and reliability by nonspecialist doctors in a general population. This study was planned for two steps. In step 1, the measurement of AAI, (ratio between Doppler systolic pressure at the ankle for each lower limb and the highest value of Doppler systolic pressure of the two upper limbs), should be performed by 50 general practitioners (GPs), 50 social security center physicians, and 50 occupational health physicians in 3,000 male smokers, 40 to 59 years, without clinical cardiovascular disease.

Reproducibility in ultrasonic characterization of carotid plaques.

Background And Purpose: Echolucent carotid plaques compared with echogenic plaques could carry a significant risk of transient ischemic attacks and strokes, but the reproducibility of new ultrasonic methods has not yet been proved. The objective was to evaluate interobserver and intraobserver agreement in characterizing the carotid plaques studied by both B mode imaging and color Doppler imaging, which is the only ultrasonic method available for recognizing anechoic lesions.

Methods: Fifty-three carotid plaques greater than 40% in diameter were selected from four centers and simultaneously analyzed by 9 observers.

[Renal stenosis in hypertensive children. Doppler/arteriographic correlation].

To evaluate the reliability of Doppler-ultrasonography in identifying children with renal artery stenosis among those with hypertension, we compared Doppler ultrasonography results in 29 hypertensive children (mean age: 8.3 +/- 4.7 years) with angiography.

[Does the inferior vena cava have 2 surfaces and 2 borders also?].

The vena cava that has a preferential flattening axis, has also 2 wall sides and 2 borders. The back wall fits closely round on the back vertebral plane and the main colaterals terminate on the borders of the vein. TM echography perfectly analyses the movements of the walls of the vein, as well as the respiratory and auricular movements.