Introduction: Nitroglycerin is a fast-acting drug that rapidly dilates coronary arteries and thus increases blood flow to these vessels, and increases the blood flow through the lateral vessels to low blood areas. It also reduces both end diastolic pressure and volume of the left ventricular. However, the effect of nitroglycerin on the circulation hemodynamic is not known. Caro...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE We hypothesized that direct cervical investigation with Power M-Mode Doppler (PMD) combined with single-gate Doppler spectral analysis (SGDSA) using a 2-MHz pulsed-wave Doppler transducer would show reasonable accuracy parameters when compared with standard color-coded carotid duplex ultrasound (CDU). METHODS We prospectively screened for cervical internal carotid arter...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Established Doppler parameters for carotid stenosis assessment do not reflect North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial (NASCET)-style methodology. We derived a Doppler parameter, termed sonographic NASCET index (SNI), and hypothesized that the SNI would provide greater angiographic correlation and better accuracy in predicting stenosis of 70% or greater tha...

BACKGROUND Cerebral infarcts distal to carotid stenoses are thought to be caused by emboli from inflamed, destabilized plaques. We hypothesized that microembolic signals (MES) on transcranial Doppler will be associated with carotid plaque inflammation on (18)F fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography (FDG PET) in recently symptomatic patients. METHODS AND RESULTS Sixteen patients prese...

BACKGROUND Trifurcation of the common carotid artery is an unusual variation. CASE REPORT We report a case of left common carotid artery trifurcation in a 74-year-old man. The left common carotid artery divided into the internal carotid, external carotid and facial arteries. Herein, the anatomy of the carotid arteries and the Doppler sonography and CT angiography findings of the left common c...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Little information is available on extracranial carotid artery disease in free-living elderly individuals. We sought to evaluate the prevalence of carotid lesions in the elderly. METHODS Using echo-Doppler, we assessed the prevalence of possible atherosclerotic lesions in the internal carotid arteries (n = 478) and the external and common carotid arteries (n = 956) of 2...

Results A total of 506 patients underwent CABG during the study period and 492 were included for analysis. 203 carotid artery Doppler ultrasound scans were performed. CAD screening was performed in 63/115 of the patients who met with class-I recommendations (history of stroke/transient ischaemic attack or carotid bruit) and 184/440 of the patients who met with class-IIa recommendations (age ove...

In 38 patients who underwent cerebrovascular evaluation followed by angiography the Doppler ultrasound scanning technique was found to be an excellent screening procedure for detecting marked stenosis (>50%) or occlusion of the internal carotid artery (93% correlation). It is noninvasive, easily reproducible and can be performed by a qualified technician. The major problems are: the inability t...

The duplex ultrasonic scanner combines real-time B-mode imaging with a single-gate, variable-range pulsed Doppler. The detection and categorization of the severity of carotid artery atherosclerosis is achieved by performing spectral analysis of the pulsed Doppler velocity signal obtained from vessels of interest. Using this technique, 750 patients with suspected extracranial carotid artery dise...

In 38 patients who underwent cerebrovascular evaluation followed by angiography the Doppler ultrasound scanning technique was found to be an excellent screening procedure for detecting marked stenosis (greater than 50%) or occlusion of the internal carotid artery (93% correlation). It is noninvasive, easily reproducible and can be performed by a qualified technician. The major problems are: the...