Background and purpose: We sought to establish the efficacy of the Doppler technique in the evaluation of the intracranial venous system and to assess its usefulness in the monitoring of venous collateral pathways in superior sagittal sinus thrombosis.
Methods: Venous Doppler ultrasound was performed with a range-gated 2-MHz transducer in 10 healthy volunteers and in two patients with superior sagittal sinus thrombosis confirmed by cerebral angiography.
Results: In normal control subjects, a venous signal was found at a depth ranging from 40 to 72 mm, which was considered to correspond to the deep middle cerebral vein and the basal vein of Rosenthal. Mean blood flow velocities ranged from 9 to 20 cm/s. In both patients with superior sagittal sinus thrombosis, Doppler studies detected elevated mean blood flow velocities (146 and 33 cm/s), which normalized after 16 weeks and 1 week, respectively.
Conclusions: Venous transcranial Doppler ultrasonography provides a reliable, noninvasive, and rapid technique for intracranial venous examination. It was performed without difficulty in young health volunteers, and it can be applied as a monitoring tool in the evaluation of collateral venous flow in superior sagittal sinus thrombosis.