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© 2009 by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine
J Ultrasound Med 28:1487-1492 • 0278-4297

Interhemispheric Comparisons of Cerebral Blood Flow Velocity Changes During Mental Tasks With Transcranial Doppler Sonography

Tzu-Kang Lin, MD, Shan-Jin Ryu, MD and Peng-Wei Hsu, MD

Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery (T.-K.L., P.-W.H.), and Department of Neurology (S.-J.R.), Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University, Kweishan, Taiwan.

Address correspondence to Tzu-Kang Lin, MD, Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, 5 Fu-Shing St, Kweishan, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan. E-mail: tklin100{at}cgmh.org.tw

Objective. The purpose of this study was to evaluate hemispheric asymmetry of cerebral blood flow changes during various mental tests by applying transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD) to simultaneously monitor bilateral cerebral blood flow velocity changes. Methods. Twenty-one participants without cerebrovascular disease performed 3 left hemispheric tasks (reading, calculation, and color scaling) and 3 right hemispheric tasks (face recognition, space imagination, and line orientation). Results. Mean velocities of the rest and performing periods did not differ significantly between the left and right hemispheric tasks. Although greater acceleration of blood flow velocity was observed on the left than on the right in most of the 6 tasks except line orientation (mean left – right ratio difference [Dl–r] ranged from –0.018 to 0.071), this difference was larger for left hemispheric tasks (mean Dl–r ranged from 0.050 to 0.071) than right hemispheric tasks (mean Dl–r ranged from –0.018 to 0.034; P < .001). Further comparisons of each pair of (ie, left and right) hemispheric tasks revealed that the most suitable left and right hemispheric tasks to show hemispheric asymmetry were reading and line orientation, respectively (P < .001). Conclusions. Hemispheric asymmetry of cerebral blood flow changes during mental tests is demonstrable with TCD only when comparing the Dl–r in response to suitable paired left and right hemispheric tasks.

Key Words: cerebral blood flow • cognitive task • functional transcranial Doppler sonography • mental activity • neuropsychology

Abbreviations: ANOVA, analysis of variance • Dl–r, left – right ratio difference • fTCD, functional transcrainal Doppler sonography • MCA, middle cerebral artery • MV, mean velocity • MVref, reference mean velocity • Rleft, flow change ratio of the left hemisphere • Rright, flow change ratio of the right hemisphere • TCD, transcranial Doppler sonography

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Copyright © 2009 by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.