Noninvasive detection of intracranial vascular lesions by recording blood flow sounds.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Transorbital blood flow sound recordings have the potential to be used for noninvasive detection of cerebral aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations. We describe our system and experience in detecting intracranial cerebrovascular disease.

METHODS

We investigated the noninvasive detection of intracranial vascular lesions by recording and analyzing the intracranial blood flow sounds. A new small transducer was placed on the unilateral eyelid to record the intracranial blood flow sounds, which were amplified and converted to digital data at a sampling frequency of 2000 Hz to provide a spectral analysis.

RESULTS

No spectral peaks were recorded in 30 healthy adults. Sharp peaks were recorded in 12 of 15 patients with unclipped aneurysms, and broad peaks were recorded in two patients with vasospasm after aneurysmal clipping and in all patients with severe intracranial internal carotid artery stenosis.

CONCLUSIONS

This noninvasive technique has the potential to be very useful in the detection of intracranial cerebrovascular disease, including aneurysm and arterial stenosis, and could be used in mass screening examinations.