[The value of various transcranial color doppler tests for determining cerebrovascular reserve capacity]

[Cerebral vasoreactivity: Concordance of breath holding test and acetazolamide injection in current practice: 20 cases of asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis]

INTRODUCTION

Cerebral vasoreactivity (CVR) is the ability of the brain's vascular system to keep cerebral blood inflow stable. Impaired CVR is a risk marker of stroke in patients with asymptomatic carotid stenosis. The gold standard to assess CVR with transcranial ultrasound is acetazolamide (ACTZ) injection. The breath holding test (BHT) might be easier to perform. CVR proved to be efficient in laboratory conditions but not in routine practice.

OBJECTIVES

To study the validity of BHT versus ACTZ in routine practice in a vascular exploration unit in patients with asymptomatic carotid stenosis.

METHODS

Study of concordance of BHT and ACTZ, to assess CVR in patients consecutively explored on the same day.

RESULTS

Eighteen patients with 20 carotid stenosis were included. The temporal window was missing in 20% of cases. Only 11 out of the 20 procedures were analyzed. Concordance was low between BHT and ACTZ to assess CVR (k=0.3714).

CONCLUSION

BHT cannot replace ACTZ injection. It might be a first-step test so that ACTZ injection might be avoided if CVR is normal. Our present results must be confirmed by further study enrolling many more patients.

Embolic and Hemodynamic Transcranial Doppler Characteristics in Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke due to Carotid Occlusive Disease: Contribution to the Different Infarct Patterns on MRI

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Whether hemodynamic and/or embolic transcranial Doppler (TCD) features of internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis contribute to the classification of stroke patterns on MRI.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Consecutive patients presenting symptomatic ≥50% ICA stenosis were included. Microembolic signals (MES) detection and measurement of cerebral vasoreactivity (VR) were performed by TCD. Only acute MRI lesions, territorial (TT) and/or borderzone (BZ) were considered.

RESULTS

A total of 72 ICA stenoses, 27 (38%) moderate (50-69%), and 45 (62%) high grade (70-99%) were included. MRI lesions showed 32 (44%) pure TT, 20 (28%) pure BZ, and 20 (28%) mixed TT and BZ. Impaired VR was found more frequently among patients with higher degrees of stenoses (P < .001) whereas MES were similarly encountered in both groups (P = NS). Impaired VR was more common in the BZ (10/20, 50%) than in the TT group (9/32, 28%, P < .1) while MES were present in 47% (15/32) of patients with TT and in 30% (6/20, P < .1) of those with BZ lesions, in particular in cortical BZ infarcts (P < .02).

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that TCD characteristics of the ICA stenosis contribute to better define stroke patterns on MRI in about one-third of the patients presenting with pure TT or BZ lesions.

Hand gripping and acetazolamide effect in normal persons and patients with carotid artery disease

Transcranial Doppler measurement (TCD) of cerebrovascular reserve (CVR) is usually performed by the CO2 test, the acetazolamide test, or the breath-holding test. Since these tests are time-consuming and labor-intensive, alternative methods such as the hand-gripping test are of interest. Twenty-one normal persons and 25 patients with unilateral carotid artery disease were studied. Flow velocity changes in both middle cerebral arteries (MCAs) during bilateral hand gripping were measured by TCD and compared with acetazolamide test results. The increase in MCA mean flow velocity (FVmean) during hand gripping was 18.0 +/- 6.3% in normal persons; the increases in the post-stenotic MCA were 15.8 +/- 9.7% in all patients and 9.4 +/- 5.4% in patients with impaired CVR as determined by the acetazolamide test. Only in the group with impaired acetazolamide reactivity was the increase in the poststenotic MCA significantly lower compared to that in controls (p < 0.01) and to the contralateral, nonstenotic side (p < 0.01). Nevertheless the FVmean increases in both tests showed a weak, but significant correlation (r = 0.59, p < 0.01). All FVmean increases during hand gripping were significantly (p < 0.01) lower than those during the acetazolamide test. The test appears as a weaker stimulus for MCA blood flow velocity increase than the acetazolamide test. Thus, only a substantial reduction of acetazolamide reactivity leads to a reduced MCA FVmean increase using hand gripping. Although it is highly specific but less sensitive, hand gripping does not appear to be suitable as a screening measure of CVR, but might be useful in addition to standard tests.