Although arteriography is the definite study for assessment of cerebral circulation, the time, risk and patient's discomfort make its use as a screening test impractical. Recently, a variety of noninvasive diagnostic methods have been developed to overcome such difficulties.
In the present study, oculoplethysmography (OPG) and carotid phonoangiography (CPA) were applied as the noninvasive methods to evaluate the accuracy for detecting the extracranial carotid occlusive disease in 73 patients who underwent bilateral carotid arteriography.
The delay of ipsilateral ocular pulse wave relative to contralateral side was taken as an abnormal OPG finding, suggesting the presence of a significant internal carotid occlusive lesion. CPA was used as a supplementary test to support the OPG findings and to discriminate the complete carotid occlusion from the stenotic lesion.
Among 42 patients diagnosed as “normal” by OPG and CPA, 19 patients showed no internal carotid lesion at all and 19 had stenosis less than 50%. Of the remaining four patients, one had stenosis greater than 50% and three showed complete occlusion of the internal carotid artery distal to the ophthalmic artery.
In 31 patients with abnormal OPG with or without CPA abnormalities, complete occlusion of the internal carotid artery was found in 17 (55%), stenosis of 50% or greater in 8 (26%), stenosis less than 50% in five, and no stenosis was present in one case. Differentiation of complete occlusion from marked stenosis of the carotid artery was not always easy, but the absence of bruit in CPA strongly suggested a presence of complete occlusion.
Major disadvantage of the present tests is incapability of detecting mild degree of stenosis, especially ulcerative plaques at the carotid bifurcation which is thought to be a potent source of microemboli, although it is a common problem in most noninvasive diagnostic devices. However, once OPG is abnormal, the patient has more than 80% possibilities of having either a complete occlusion or a marked stenosis of greater than 50% in the carotid artery. When OPG and CPA are both normal, more than 90% of the patients have no or insignificant stenotic lesion.
No complication was observed in any patients who underwent OPG and CPA.
As a combination of these two tests are easy to perform, universally applicable without producing patient's discomfort, and have extremely low risk of complication and relatively high diagnostic accuracy, it is concluded that OPG and CPA are useful noninvasive techniques for screening the candidates of carotid arteriography and for the long-term follow up of the patients with carotid occlusive disease.
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