Department of Radiology, Kangnam General Hospital Public Corporation
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE : The change of cerebrovascular flow in the neonates is influenced by brain diseases and systemicdiseases. We tried to evaluate normal values of flow parameters (peak systolic velocity, end-diastolic velocity,pulsatility index and resistive index) in the intracranial arteries of the healthy Korean neonates. MATERIAL &METHODS : Flow parameters of the intracranial arteries were measured by pulsed color Doppler ultrasonography in 73healthy preterm and fullterm neonates. The internal carotid artery (ICA) and anterior cerebral artery (ACA) wereinvestigated via the anterior fontanelle without correction angle, and the middle cerebral artery (MCA) andposterior cerebral artery (PCA) by a transtemporal approach with correction angle of 10∼3 0°, 35 ∼60°,respectively. The correlations of flow parameters according to corrected gestational age and body weight wereperformed. RESULTS : Normal values of the peak systolic and end-diastolic velocities in the ICA were 0.51 ± 0.12m / sec (maximum ; 0.90 m / s, minimum ; 0.59 m / s), 0.12 ± 0.04 m / sec (0.20 m / s, 0.04 m / s) ; 0.40 ± 0.13m / sec (0.81 m / s, 0.13 m / s) in the ACA, 0.09 ± 0.03 m / sec(0.17 m / s, 0.03 m / s), 0.59 ± 0.13 (1.08 m /s, 0.27 m / s) in the MCA, 0.15 ± 0.05 m / sec (0.31 m / s, 0.03 m / s), and 0.47 ± 0.14 (0.82 m / s, 0.19 m /s), 0.13 ± 0.05 (0.28 m / s, 0.05 m / s) in the PCA, respectively. The pulsatility and resistive indices were1.53 ± 0.34 (maximum ; 2.48, minimum ; 0.87), 0.76 ± 0.07 (0.90, 0.59) in the ICA ; 1.46 ± 0.31 (2.22, 0.89),0.74 ± 0.11 (0.90, 0.09) in the ACA, 1.51 ± 0.36 (2.51, 0.35), 0.75 ± 0.08 (1.00, 0.56) in the MCA, and 1.34 ±0.31 (1.94, 0.47), 0.72 ± 0.07 (0.85, 0.56) in the PCA, respectively. None of the flow parameters showedcorrelation with increasing corrected gestational age and body weight CONCLUSION : We believe that these data mayprovide useful information for the evaluation of pathophysiologic condition affecting cerebrovascular flow in theneo-nates.