[Comparison of Doppler velocimetry of the common carotid artery with cerebral blood flow measured by PET].

The cervical carotid Doppler velocity is determined by the cardiovascular function, hemodynamic characteristics of proximal vascular beds, the carotid artery, and the distal vascular beds, i.e., cerebral circulation. If the former three factors remain constant, cervical carotid Doppler velocimetry reflects the cerebral circulation. The purpose of this report is to study whether the cervical carotid Doppler velocimetry reflects cerebral circulation or not. Parameters measured by the common carotid Doppler velocimetry were compared with cerebral blood flow (CBF) in the internal carotid arterial distribution measured by positron emission tomography (PET) in 50 patients, aged from 33 to 72 years old (mean: 56.5 +/- 8.6). These subjects were 14 with cerebral infarction, 12 with no abnormality (normal volunteers), 5 with brain tumor, 2 with normal pressure hydrocephalus, 3 with spinocerebellar degeneration, and so on. CBF was measured by the 15O-gas steady state method or H2(15)O autoradiographic method using a HEADTOME III scanner. Subsequently, pulsed Doppler flow velocimetry of the common carotid artery was performed using a RT-3600 scanner which employed a 5-MHz transducer, and systolic velocity (SV), diastolic velocity (DV), mean velocity (MV), and pulsatility index (PI) were measured. Cerebral angiography was performed in every patient except for normal volunteers, and it demonstrated no evidence of stenoocclusive lesions in the cervical carotid artery. X-ray computed tomogram (CT) was also performed in all patients. We compared CBF in the internal carotid arterial distribution with SV, DV, MV, and PI.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)