Transcranial color duplex sonography of basal cerebral arteries: reference data of flow velocities from childhood to adulthood.

A prospective study on transcranial color duplex sonography (TCCD) was performed with 94 healthy children and adolescents between 3 and 18 years of age (age and sex evenly distributed) in order to provide normal data on angle-corrected ("true") flow velocities and wave-form parameters of the main supra- and infratentorial basal cerebral arteries. Using a 2.0 MHz transducer of a computed sonography system, we examined the anterior, middle, and posterior cerebral arteries of either side transcranially, and the vertebrobasilar system suboccipitally. In all arteries, flow velocities decreased continuously from early childhood to adulthood, while wave-form parameters remained constant. There was no difference in flow velocities, and wave-form parameters between girls and boys. On the average, the angle-corrected flow velocities measured by TCCD were about 10%-20% higher than the reference data provided in "blind" transcranial Doppler studies by other groups for the anterior and posterior cerebral arteries as well as the basilar artery, while there were only small differences in the values for the middle cerebral artery. Side-to-side differences in flow velocities were lower in the middle and posterior cerebral arteries than in the anterior cerebral and the vertebral arteries. The reference data presented here provide a basis for the clinical application of the TCCD method in children and adolescents.