From the Department of Neurology, University of Münster (Germany).
Correspondence to Stefan Knecht, MD, Department of Neurology, University of Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Straße 33, D-48129 Münster, Germany. E-mail knecht{at}uni-muenster.de
Background and Purpose—Since
functional transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (fTCD)
allows convenient and fully automated quantification of language
lateralization, it seems ideal for longitudinal studies of perfusion
changes during deterioration as well as recovery of language functions.
However, during serial examinations, the technical, stochastic, and
physiological variabilities of cerebral blood flow
velocities (CBFV) have to be considered. Therefore, before fTCD is
accepted as a tool for evaluation of changes in lateralization in the
diseased state, its reliability in healthy subjects needs to be
determined.
Methods—We performed fTCD during a word generation task based on
a previously validated technique with automated calculation of the
averaged CBFV differences in the middle cerebral arteries providing an
index of lateralization (LI).
Results—(1) The accuracy of the LI as assessed by the confidence
interval was better than 1% of the mean hemispheric difference. (2) On
repeated examination, LIs obtained from 10 subjects showed a high
test-retest reproducibility (Pearson product moment correlation
coefficient r=0.95, P<0.0001). (3) On 10
repeated assessments of LI in the same subject, no practice effects
were detected.
Conclusions—Functional TCD is a suitable and very robust tool for
the longitudinal quantitative measurement of cerebral language
lateralization.
© 1998 American Heart Association, Inc.
Original Contributions
Reproducibility of Functional Transcranial Doppler Sonography in Determining Hemispheric Language Lateralization
Key Words: functional imaging • language • reliability • reproducibility • ultrasonography, Doppler
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