Establishing Flow Velocity of the Common Carotid Artery in Normal adults Using Ultrasonography

Abstract

Extracranial carotid artery disease is responsible for more than 50% of all the cerebrovascular disorders. 4 Flow limiting stenosis of the carotid artery is a common predisposing cause of cardiovascular diseases including stroke. There is crucial age, body habitus and gender-related differences in the prevalence and burden of cardiovascular disease 5 . An approach to understanding this disparity particularly in stroke is to establish normal characteristic profile of carotid flow velocities. Ultrasonography which is a non-invasive, safe and relatively inexpensive technique devoid of ionizing radiation is increasingly used for evaluation of flow velocities thus detecting early atherosclerosis changes and predicting clinical complications. 6