Digital subtraction angiography and continuous-wave Doppler studies. Their use in postoperative study of patients with carotid endarterectomy

C. W. Acher, W. D. Turnipseed, J. F. Sackett, C. M. Strother, A. Crummy and C. Mistretta

Postoperative study of 40 patients who underwent carotid endarterectomy was performed using digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and transcutaneous continuous-wave Doppler (CWD) studies. The two techniques were comparable in defining recurrent stenosis in the reconstructed carotid arteries and progressive disease in the contralateral carotid artery. Digital subtraction angiography appeared to be more sensitive than the CWD method in detecting minor progression of carotid disease. Our data suggested that CWD and DSA have comparable ability to identify significant (greater than 50%) carotid artery stenosis in this group of patients. However, DSA provided more detailed imaging of the carotid system and may give enough information about progression of carotid disease to avoid preoperative arteriography in some patients.