Saidu Medical College, Swat, KP, Pakistan.
Neurosurg Rev. 2024 Oct 12;47(1):787. doi: 10.1007/s10143-024-03027-2.
This letter discusses major aspects of the research "Superb Microvascular Ultrasound as a Promising Non-invasive Diagnostic Tool to Assess Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt System Function: A Feasibility Study." While the study shows great promise in adopting superb microvascular imaging (SMI) for non-invasive evaluation of ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS) systems, some limitations are noted. These include the small patient group, which focusses primarily on adult patients with programmable shunts, limiting the generalisability of the results. Furthermore, the paucity of long-term follow-up data raises questions about the accuracy of SMI in diagnosing shunt dysfunctions over time. Furthermore, the lack of comparative research with known diagnostic modalities such as CT and MRI, as well as the omission of operator-dependent variability in results, may impair the study's broader relevance. Future research should address these limitations by including varied patient populations, long-term investigations, and standardised techniques in order to improve the validity and clinical usefulness of SMI as a diagnostic tool for VPS systems.
这封信讨论了研究“卓越的微血管超声作为一种有前途的非侵入性诊断工具来评估脑室-腹腔分流系统功能:一项可行性研究”的主要方面。虽然该研究表明采用卓越的微血管成像(SMI)进行脑室-腹腔分流(VPS)系统的非侵入性评估具有很大的潜力,但也注意到了一些局限性。这些局限性包括患者群体较小,主要集中在有可编程分流器的成年患者,这限制了研究结果的普遍性。此外,缺乏长期随访数据,这使得 SMI 在随时间诊断分流器功能障碍方面的准确性受到质疑。此外,缺乏与 CT 和 MRI 等已知诊断方式的比较研究,以及结果中忽略了操作者依赖的变异性,可能会降低该研究的广泛相关性。未来的研究应该通过纳入不同的患者群体、长期研究和标准化技术来解决这些局限性,以提高 SMI 作为 VPS 系统诊断工具的有效性和临床实用性。