title: Middle cerebral artery blood velocity and cerebral blood flow in sickle cell disease.
abstract: To understand better the relationship between blood velocity measured by transcranial Doppler and cerebral blood flow measured by the 133Xe inhalation method, we examined 23 patients undergoing evaluation in the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center at Columbia University. Blood velocity in the middle cerebral artery was directly related to cerebral flow (r = 0.77; p less than 0.05). A multivariate analysis in this sample made it possible to improve this correlation to account for more than 90% of the variability in cerebral blood flow by the use of transcranial Doppler measures of velocity and pulsatility along with the patient's age and hematocrit (r = 0.95; p less than 0.001). It is likely that the combination of Doppler and clinical or demographic variables in other diseases will similarly improve the quantitative estimation of cerebral blood flow.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, New York.
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Brass
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Prohovnik
authors.forename: S G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Pavlakis
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: DeVivo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Piomelli
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Mohr
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D002533:Cerebral Angiography; D002536:Cerebral Arteries / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D002648:Child; D006400:Hematocrit; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D012805:Sickle Cell Trait / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014463:Ultrasonography