Transcranial ultrasound in adults and children with movement disorders

Abstract

Since the first discovery, that ultrasound can overcome the skull allowing examination of the intracranial blood-flow as well as the first description of substantia nigra (SN) signal alterations via B-mode sonography, a plethora of applications especially in the field of movement disorders have been fostered. Up to now, however, most studies investigated adult individuals, even though numerous of the diseases studied have their onset already during childhood or adolescence. This overview summarizes recent studies of transcranial B-mode sonography (TCS) within the movement disorder field and outlines potential implications for pediatric applications.For decades it was thought, that it is impossible to penetrate the intact scull by ultrasound for the visualization of intracranial structures and measurement of blood flow in the circle of Wilis. It was in the 1980s when Aaslid et al. could demonstrate that blood flow of the intracranial arteries can be analysed by transcranial Doppler sonography [1]. In following years a rapid development of ultrasound systems evolved until Becker et al. were able to display the substantia nigra (SN) reproducibly via B-Mode sonography in 1995. Moreover, they were able to demonstrate an enlargement and hyperechogenicity of the SN area patients suffering from Parkison's disease (PD) [2]. Up to now, this finding was reproduced by many independent groups and transcranial B-mode sonography (TCS) developed into an expanding research field for a multitude of medical applications. Here, we will shortly