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Updated: Jun 27, 2026
State of the Art Cranial Ultrasound Imaging in Neonates
Published on: February 2, 2015
Diameter assessment of the third ventricle with transcranial sonography in patients with multiple sclerosis
Ulf Schminke1, Leif Lorenz, Michael Kirsch
1Department of Neurology, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University, Greifswald, Germany. Ulf.Schminke@uni-greifswald.de
Background And Purpose:
Diameter measurement of the third ventricle with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and recently also with transcranial sonography (TCS) has emerged as a surrogate marker for brain atrophy and disease progression in multiple sclerosis (MS). This study aims to evaluate TCS measurements of the third ventricle diameter in a clinical routine setting against MRI.
Methods:
Transverse diameters of the third ventricle were determined in 27 MS patients using both, TCS and MRI. In TCS, the distance between the leading edges of the brain-ventricle interfaces was assessed in axial image planes. In MRI, the transverse diameter of the mid-portion of the third ventricle was measured on axial T1-weighted images.
Results:
The mean diameter of the third ventricle was 4.0 mm (SD 1.7 mm), when measured with MRI, and 4.4 mm (SD 1.7 mm), when measured with TCS. The 95% limits of agreement of the Bland-Altman Plot were 2.93 mm (95% CI 2.08 to 3.78 mm) and -2.23 mm (95%CI -3.08 to -1.38 mm). Pearson correlation coefficient was .71 (P < .0001).
Conclusions:
TCS may appear suitable as screening examination for the extent of brain atrophy at a single-point study, but at least in the early stages of the disease, TCS is not useful to monitor disease progression.
