An unusual transcranial Doppler waveform associated with vessel distortion in giant intracranial aneurysms

Although the shapes of velocity waveforms obtained with transcranial Doppler examination can indicate such abnormalities as increased intracranial pressure and proximal arterial compromise, the significance of unusual waveform morphologies is often obscure. In this report, we describe four cases in which an unusual waveform morphology was obtained from vessels distorted and narrowed by intracranial masses. The appearance of this unusual morphology as an isolated signal within a transcranial Doppler examination should, therefore, suggest a structural deformation of the insonated vessel to those who interpret transcranial Doppler studies.