Anomalies of Central Nervous System in Infaney; Evaluation by Color Doppler Echoencephalography

Abstract

We performed 78 color Doppler examinations to demonstrate intracranial vasculature in 61 infants; 30 cases with normal and 19 with abnormal central nervous system anatomy. Developmental abnormalities such as hydrocephalus, hydranencephaly, holoprosencephaly, absent corpus callosum, and Dandy-Walker syndrome were demonstrated. Serial scans were obtained in sagittal, coronal, and axial plains. Most of the major intracranial arteries and veins could be clearly demonstrated in real-time. In patients with hydrocephalus, color Doppler imaging demonstrated a widely streched and elevated sweep of the anterior cerebral arteries, straightening of the middle cerebral arteries by the enlarged ventricles. The internal cerebral veins, great cerebral vein, straight sinus were straighted and displaced posteriorly and inferiorly. In infants with absent corpus callosum, anterior cerebral arteries and their branches appeared to be wavy. However, in patients with developmental abnormalities, visualizations of the vasculature were relatively poor. In conclusion, the color Doppler examination is a useful and practical method of imaging of cerebral vessels in infants, because of its non-invasiveness and portability.