Carotid Doppler evaluation in cerebrovascular disease

The Doppler technique has proven to be a useful noninvasive technique for evaluating the patency of the carotid artery in patients at risk of stroke. The data obtained from 246 carotid Doppler examinations were compared with the angiographic findings in the same patients. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy were high when the degree of stenosis was greater than 50%, but occlusions were less reliably detected, with 8 (33%) of the 24 being misdiagnosed as high-grade stenoses. Carotid Doppler evaluation guides and accelerates decisions regarding further investigations, such as cerebral angiography. It helps one decide whether a neck bruit is of arterial origin and aids assessment following cerebrovascular surgery. It is not a substitute for cerebral angiography because it poorly visualizes both the posterior and the intracranial circulations and cannot accurately detect low-grade (less than 50%) stenoses or ulcerated arterial plaques. Detection of stenosis in a carotid artery in an otherwise uncertain case is an indication for cerebral angiography, so the Doppler technique will probably increase the number of angiograms performed. However, this technique is also useful in follow-up, being without hazard, and should, therefore, reduce the likelihood of unnecessary angiographic examinations.