Transcranial doppler ultrasound for the diagnosis of large vessel occlusion in patients with acute ischemic stroke: A systematic review

Introduction

Transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasound may enhance the swift diagnosis of large vessel occlusion (LVO) in patients with a clinical suspicion of acute ischemic stroke (AIS). This is a comprehensive review of the literature on the use and performance of TCD ultrasound in diagnosing AIS caused by LVO.

Patients and methods

We conducted a systematic search in PubMed and Google scholar to identify studies reporting data on TCD biomarkers for LVO diagnosis and management of AIS. The main outcomes of interest were the identified TCD-derived biomarkers performances (specificity, sensitivity, predictive values) for LVO diagnosis.

Results

A total of 170 studies were screened, of which 7 (4.1 %) studies with a total of 2260 patients (mean age: 65.3 +/- 4.5 years, 1114 (49.3 %) females) were included in this review. Most of the studies were prospective (n=5, 71.4 %), all of the studies had an overall low risk of bias. In 6 studies (85.7 %), TCD was used at the time of hospital admission, on triage field in one study in the context of a confirmed AIS. A total of six TCD based biomarkers were described in the included articles, with high accuracies for LVO diagnosis (ranging from 85.9 % to 99.2 %). Pulsatility Index had the highest reported performances in terms of Accuracy for LVO diagnosis (ranging from 96 % to 99.2 %). Authors reported suboptimal temporal windows for data acquisition in 13–19.7 % of patients.

Conclusion

TCD is as a promising non-invasive and cost-effective tool for LVO diagnosis, presenting opportunities to enhance stroke management.