An ultrasound model to calculate the brain blood outflow through collateral vessels: a pilot study
BMC Neurology 2013, 13:81 doi:10.1186/1471-2377-13-81
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at:http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2377/13/81
Received: | 30 April 2013 |
Accepted: | 5 July 2013 |
Published: | 11 July 2013 |
© 2013 Zamboni et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background
The quantification of the flow returning from the head through the cervical veins and the collaterals of the internal jugular vein (IJV), is becoming of prominent interest in clinical practice. We developed a novel model to calculate the cerebral venous return, normalized to the arterial inflow, in the different segments of the IJV.
Methods
We assessed, by established Echo Colour Doppler (ECD) methodology, the head inflow (HBinF) defined as the sum of common carotids and vertebral arteries, as well as the cerebral flow (CBF) defined as the sum of internal carotid and vertebral arteries. We also assessed the head outflow (HBoutF) defined as the sum of the measurements at the junction of the IJV and the vertebral veins. In addition, we also calculated the collateral flow index (CFI) by estimating the flow which re-enters directly into the superior vena cava as the amount of blood extrapolated by the difference between the HBinF and the HBoutF. We preliminarily tested the model by comparing ten healthy controls (HC) with ten patients affected by chronic cerebral spinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI), a condition characterized by some blockages in the IJV which are bypassed by collateral circulation.
Results
In HC the HBinF was 956+-105ml/min, whereas the HBoutF was > 90% of the HBinF, leading to a final CFI value of 1%. The last result shows that a very small amount of blood is drained by the collaterals. In upright we confirmed a reduction of the outflow through the IJV which increased CFI to 9%. When we applied the model to CCSVI, the HBinF was not significantly different from controls. In supine, the flow of CCSVI patients in the IJV junction was significantly lower (p < 0.001) while the correspondent CFI value significantly increased (61%, p < 0.0002).
Conclusions
Our preliminary application of the novel model in the clinical setting suggests the pivotal role of the collateral network in draining the blood into the superior vena cava under CCSVI condition.
Conclusion
We developed a new model that permits a detailed ECD quantification of the cerebral venous return, including an estimation of the amount of blood flowing from the collaterals to the caval system or to the IJV. The preliminary application of the model seems to indicate how a significant rate of the head inflow is drained by the collateral network rather than by the IJV in the CCSVI condition. This may help the interpretation of several findings assessed with different techniques, where it was not possible to assess the outflow contribution of the collateral network, as well as the rate of the inflow going in the main venous paths. For instance, the higher flow in the collateral network may explain the longer cerebral circulation time measured by means of contrast-enhanced US, as well as the slower discharge and increased resistance measured in MS [32-34]. Our preliminary report needs to be further corroborated by reproducibility analysis, wider number of subjects and pathological conditions, and possibly, by a multicenter design. This may lead to a further advancement for the circulatory quantification of the CCSVI condition in the clinical setting via ultrasonography.
Endnote
aThe named indexes are subject to copyright.
Abbreviations
Brain-C: Brain compartment; CBF: cerebral blood flow; CCA: Common carotid artery; CFI: Collateral Flow Index; CSA: Cross sectional area; CCDI: Cerebral Collateral Draining Index; CCSVI: Chronic Cerebrospinal venous insufficiency; CVO: Cerebral venous outflow; DCVO: Delta Cerebral Venous Outflow; DJVDI: Distal, Jugular Vertebral Draining Index; ECA: External carotid artery; ECD: Echo coulor Doppler; HBinF: Head blood in-flow; HBoutF: Head blood out-flow; HC: Healthy control; ICA: Internal carotid; IJVs: Internal jugular veins; PT: Total of patients; FN-C: Facial and neck compartment; SV: Sample volume; TAV: Time average velocity; VA: Vertebral artery; VVs: Vertebral veins.
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Pre-publication history
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