Intracranial blood flow: quantification with duplex Doppler and color Doppler flow US.

The authors compared changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF), determined by means of injection of radiolabeled microspheres, with Doppler blood flow measurements obtained simultaneously in the middle (n = 9) and anterior cerebral arteries (n = 3) in 12 newborn lambs. Doppler estimates of blood flow and mean blood flow velocity correlated well with changes in CBF. However, with changes in mean blood flow velocity, the degree of change in CBF tended to be underestimated. The resistive index correlated well with perfusion pressure but correlated weakly with cerebrovascular resistance and poorly with changes in CBF. Doppler blood flow estimates and mean blood flow velocities correlate well with changes in CBF and allow significant improvement in accuracy over instantaneous velocity or pulsatility measurements alone. Determination of absolute blood flow remains difficult due to systolic and diastolic differences in vessel diameter and intrinsic error in true diameter measurement with currently available color flow technology.