[Usefulness of ultrasonic evaluation of the ophthalmic artery branches by the Doppler method in the diagnosis of marked stenosis and occlusion of the internal carotid artery].

Ninety-two patients with disturbances of cerebral circulation were subjected to contrast diagnostic methods and ultrasonographic examination by the method based on Doppler's phenomena. In ultrasonographic examination the blood flow in the internal carotid artery was assessed directly and indirectly (through the extraorbital branches of the ipsilateral ophthalmic arteries with compression test). The results of Doppler ultrasonography of 119 internal carotid arteries were compared with their angiographic images which showed normal state of these arteries, in 56 stenosis of the lumen over 70% in 14, occlusion of the artery in 49 (with occlusion of the initial part of the artery in 44 cases). Using the combined evaluation of the internal carotid and ophthalmic arteries a high agreement was obtained between the results of ultrasonography and contrast methods--96.3% for normal internal carotid arteries, 93.6% for arteries with major stenosis or occlusion, 90.9% for occlusion of the initial part of the internal carotid artery. It is worth stressing that in Doppler ultrasonography only a combination of absent blood flow in the artery and lack of Doppler's effect or reversed blood flow in the ipsilateral ophthalmic artery indicate unequivocally occlusion of the internal carotid artery.