Quantitative regional cerebral blood flow measurement techniques improve noninvasive detection of cerebrovascular vasospasm after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage

Adequate therapy of vasospasm (VS) in patients suffering from aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage critically depends upon early and reliable diagnosis of cerebral hypoperfusion. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the usefulness of quantitative regional blood flow (rCBF) analysis as an adjunct in noninvasive prediction of VS. Therefore, 33 transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD) studies assuming cerebrovascular VS (TCD flow velocity > 120 cm/s) were followed by Xe-s/CT and cerebral panangiography (PA). TCD plus Xe-s/CT significantly increased the predictability of VS from 34 to 91%, proving that a combination of TCD and rCBF studies improves the noninvasive detection of VS and might help to prevent unnecessary angiographic examinations. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.