Transcranial Doppler for monitoring the cerebral blood flow dynamics: normal ranges in the Italian female population.
OBJECTIVE
This study was aimed at recording, by means of a transcranial Doppler (TCD) device, the values of blood flow velocities (BFV) in the middle cerebral artery (MCA) in physiological conditions, in a population of healthy women in various ages of their life, in order to establish normative data in an Italian female population.


METHODS
Our sample consisted of 100 healthy women (mean age 38 +/-15.14 years, range 12-78) that underwent an investigation of the intracranial circulation by means of TCD. Patients were subdivided into 4 age groups: less than 20 years; 20-34 years; 35-50 years; more than 50 years.


RESULTS
No statistically significant differences were present between the mean BFV in the left and right MCAs of the subjects considered as a unique population (left MCA 68.06+/-9.22 cm/s; right MCA 66.71+/-8.79 cm/s). The BFVs tended to significantly decrease with the increasing of age. In fact, they were so distributed: left MCA 82.55+/-6.85 cm/s and right MCA 80.27+/-4.13 cm/s in the younger group; left MCA 72.15+/-6.37 cm/s and right MCA 70.68+/-6.79 cm/s in women aged 20-34; left MCA 63.85+/-7.08 cm/s and right MCA 63.06+/-7.29 cm/s in women aged 35-50; left MCA 60.67+/-6.85 cm/s and right MCA 59.10+/-5.36 cm/s in the last group.


CONCLUSIONS
The present study defined a normal age-related range of variations in MCA BFVs, useful for future comparisons in studies involving pathological female subjects.
Liboni
W
W
Gradenigo Hospital, Turin, Italy. wil.liboni@tin.it
Allais
G
G
Mana
O
O
Molinari
F
F
Grippi
G
G
Negri
E
E
Benedetto
C
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D017585:Ultrasonography, Doppler, Transcranial