Transcranial ultrasound angiography (tUSA): A new approach for contrast specific imaging of intracranial arteries

The goal was to develop an ultrasound contrast agent-specific imaging mode that offers an angiography-like view of the intracranial arteries and enables lower mechanical index MI settings compared to conventional transcranial duplex sonography. We studied 12 patients with transcranial ultrasound angiography (tUSA) via the temporal bone window after an IV bolus injection of a perfluorocarbon-based microbubble contrast agent (Imagent®). The aim was to display the intracranial vessel segments of the middle cerebral artery (M1, M2 and M3), the anterior cerebral artery (A1 and A2), the posterior cerebral artery (P1, P2 and P3) and the internal carotid artery (C1/2 and C3/4). tUSA is a B-mode phase inversion imaging technique that uses wideband harmonic signals for image generation. We demonstrate, in this report, that tUSA provides detailed anatomical display at native B-mode spatial resolution with fewer artifacts, yielding improved delineation of intracranial vessels that are in the 1- to 2-mm range. (E-mail: thoelscher@ucsd.edu)