The Detection of Carotid Artery Obstruction: A Correlation With Arteriography

Abstract

Intravenous radioisotope arteriography, carotid compression ocular plethysmography, and supraorbital Doppler studies were more accurate than ophthalmodynamometry in the detection of the presence or absence of carotid artery obstruction in 35 patients. Abnormal results were present in patients with carotid obstruction who did not have a carotid bruit. The isotope method provides information about relative blood flow through the two carotid arteries. Ocular plethysmography and supraorbital Doppler studies provide information about collateral circulatory pathways in patients with carotid obstruction. Currently, they are most useful clinically in patients who are erroneously thought to have only intracranial vascular disease since abnormal results suggest an extracranial carotid lesion. These methods will not reveal abnormalities in patients with small, ulcerated carotid plaques which are a source of embolic material but which are not decreasing carotid blood pressure and flow.