Prognostic use of ultrasonography in acute non-hemorrhagic carotid stroke

In order to evaluate whether the results of ultrasound examination may be associated with 30-day outcome, 76 consecutive patients (43 men and 33 women; mean age 68.1+/-8.9 years) underwent duplex scanning of the carotid bifurcations and transcranial doppler investigation of the basal skull arteries within the first few hours of the onset of an acute carotid stroke. Forty-three patients (56.6%) had appropriate arterial occlusion at ultrasounds examination. On day 30, 22 patients (28.9%) were self-sufficient, 41 (53.9%) were disabled and 13 (17.1%) were dead. The chi-squared test showed that the ultrasound results were significantly related to 30-day outcome (p=.0003). After logistic regression analysis, the ultrasound results remained independent predictors of 30-days outcome (p=.0129), together with neurological impairment 24 hours after stroke onset and lesion size at control computed tomography. Our study suggests that the results of ultrasound examination may be useful in the management of acute carotid stroke as an early indicator of patients with a worse prognosis.