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Carotid bifurcation stenosis: a comparative study between MR angiography and duplex scanning with respect to digital
A Carriero1, S Ucchino, N Magarelli
1Department of Radiology, Chieti University, Italy.
Purpose:
This study compared sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of Echoduplex and Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) in the evaluation of carotid bifurcation stenosis.
Material And Methods:
Twenty-five patients with clinical signs suggestive for cerebrovascular insufficiency (CVI) were studied with Duplex scan, MRA and Digital Subtraction angiography (DSA). Gold standard was the angiographic examination.
Results:
on equal value of sensitivity (80.5%), MRA showed 96% specificity versus 81% of Duplex scan, 89.4% diagnostic accuracy versus 80.9% for Duplex scan. As for stenosis over 31%, the value of sensitivity did not change i.e., 80.5%; MRA showed 100% specificity versus 97.1% for Duplex, 91.2% diagnostic accuracy versus 89.1% respectively. These values compared by the test for categorial analysis and correspondence analysis (p < 0.05) did not indicate any statistically significant difference.
Discussion:
on the basis of our experience and as shown by current literature [2, 12] we can state that both MR-angiography and Duplex scan fail in quantifying correctly carotid stenosis with consequent over- and underestimation [3, 4]. However, they can be considered effective diagnostic procedures in a screening program [12, 16]; they are accurate, safe and accepted by the population.
Conclusions:
on the basis of the cost in planning the screening of a population at risk for CVI, Duplex scanning is still to be considered the elective procedure.