Imaging of spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhages by means of transcranial color-coded sonography

BackgroundTranscranial color-coded sonography (TCCS) allows the visualization of cerebral structures and enables monitoring of circulatory disorders occurring within the circle of Willis.ObjectiveTo verify whether TCCS is a reliable method in imaging intracerebral hemorrhages (ICHs) and to what degree its results are consistent with these by means of computed tomography (CT).MethodsThis study included 39 patients with spontaneous ICHs of supratentorial and infratentorial locations. Initial TCCS was done not later than 12 h after initial CT. Clinical findings and the measurements of hemorrhagic foci and midline shift (MLS) were compared between these two methods.ResultsTCCS revealed ICHs in 34 patients, including 29 and 5 with supra- and infratentorial localization, respectively. Moreover, it showed 12 cases (35.3%) of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) and 16 cases of a midline shift (MLS). No significant differences were found between the measurements of hemorrhagic foci or MLS obtained by TCCS and CT. There was a significant correlation between the volumes of hemorrhagic foci or MLS values measured by both methods analyzed (R = 0.99 or R = 0.98, respectively). Additionally, MLS was shown to increase significantly with the volume of hemorrhagic foci (R = 0.90).ConclusionsThe high correlation between TCCS and CT in imaging spontaneous ICHs introduces the possibility of applying TCCS in everyday clinical practice.