Radiology, Vol 192, 431-437, Copyright © 1994 by Radiological Society of North America
Cerebrospinal fluid dynamics in infants evaluated with echographic color-coded flow imaging
P Winkler
Department of Pediatric Radiology, University Hospital Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
PURPOSE: To use color Doppler flow ultrasonography (US) for investigation
of rapid regional motion of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in infants with
subarachnoid hemorrhage or meningitis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty-four
transfontanellar and transcranial color Doppler US scans of the cerebral
aqueduct, ventricles, and basal cerebral and spinal subarachnoid spaces
were obtained in 19 infants (12 male and seven female infants, aged 1-81
days). Abdominal palpation or periods of straining or crying were used to
increase velocity of CSF motion. RESULTS: In all 19 infants, rapid
to-and-fro color CSF flow was observed in the aqueduct. Color-coded CSF
flow signals were seen in the aqueduct in 19 infants, in the third (n = 17
with jetlike flow) and fourth (n = 7 with jets) ventricles in 17, at the
foramen of Magendie in 11 (n = 4 with jets), and in the spinal compartment
in 14. CONCLUSION: In the presence of scattering particles or cells,
regional CSF flow can be investigated with transfontanellar, transcranial,
and spinal color flow imaging. Results of regional echographic CSF flow
investigation can indicate recent subarachnoid hemorrhage or exclude
obstruction. Jetlike CSF flow might stimulate new concepts of rapid CSF
dynamics.
