Background: It has been known that the thunderclap headache and vasoconstriction had a different time courses in reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (RCVS). Even though noninvasive transcranial Doppler Ultrasound (TCD) is an important tool to study the cerebral hemodynamics in RCVS, the previous studies on TCD findings were concentrated on anterior intracranial circulation, especially on middle cerebral arteries. Here, we tried to demonstrate the changes of individual cerebral blood flow velocities on TCD according to clinical period. Methods: Patients with RCVS were retrospectively recruited. Sequential TCD findings (9 segments; both middle cerebral arteries, anterior cerebral arteries, vertebral arteries, posterior cerebral arteries and basilar artery) were analyzed in ictal and intertical period. Total 115 segments in ictal and 116 segments in intertical segments were analyzed. Results: Thirteen patients (all female, age＝mean±standard deviation, 45.6±7.9 years) were enrolled. The significant change of blood flow was only observed in basilar artery between ictal and intertical period (62.3±13.1 vs. 49.7±8.2, p＜0.001). Conclusions: Our study suggests the cerebral hemodynamics of RCVS can be evaluated in basilar artery based on TCD, more concurrently matched to the clinical stage.
Journal of Neurosonology 7(1):19-23, 2015
Key Words: Transcranial doppler ultrasonography, Reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome