Haemodynamic monitoring of cerebral blood flow during intravascular surgery is important to assess the effect of treatment in embolization for AVM and angioplasty for occlusive cerebrovascular disease. We measured the intravascular blood flow velocity with a Doppler micro-guidewire (FLOWIRE®) during intravascular surgery in 17 patients (1 of AVM, 3 of dural AVM, 3 of cerebral aneurysm and 2 of other diseases), and compared the data with the transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD). Significant correlavion of flow velocity between TCD and FLOWIRE was seen in intracranial internal carotid artery (ICA) and middle cerebral artery. In cervical ICA, vertebral artery and basilar artery, flow velocities measured with TCD did not correlate with the data of FLOWIRE. Clinical applications of FLOWIRE include AVM embolization, cerebral angioplasty, checking flow after aneurysm embolization and outlining the operative criteria in occlusive cerebrovascular disease.
