Spiral computed tomography angiography in the assessment of middle cerebral artery occlusive disease.

There has been no report on the use of spiral computed tomography angiography (CTA) in the investigation of intracranial cerebral artery stenosis. A prospective pilot study was conducted to investigate the feasibility of CTA in the diagnosis of intracranial occlusive disease and its correlation with transcranial Doppler. With transcranial Doppler, 10 patients with acute ischaemic stroke with middle cerebral artery stenosis or occlusion were identified. There were seven middle cerebral artery stenoses and five middle cerebral artery occlusions. The CTA confirmed all diagnoses by transcranial Doppler except in one patient with middle cerebral artery occlusion in whom the embolus had probably propagated. The results showed that CTA is feasible and potentially useful in the diagnosis of middle cerebral artery occlusive disease. Further studies are required to assess its validity, sensitivity, and specificity in the diagnosis of middle cerebral artery occlusive disease.