Accuracy of bedside bidimensional transcranial ultrasound versus tomodensitometric measurement of the third ventricle.

Background and Purpose: To evaluate the accuracy of transcranial duplex sonography (TCS) for measuring the diameter of the third ventricle (DTV) and the brain midline shift (MLS), as compared to cerebral CT.
Methods: Single-center retrospective study including 177 patients admitted to the neurological intensive care unit (NICU). We studied the correlation between TCS and CT measurements of DTV and MLS using a Bland-Altman analysis. The best threshold of DTV to diagnose acute hydrocephalus was evaluated with a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis.
Results: We analyzed 177 pairs of CT-TCS measurements for DTV and 165 for MLS. The mean time interval between CT and TCS was 87 ± 73 minutes. Median DTV measurement on CT was 4 ± 3 mm, and 5 ± 3 mm by TCS. Median MLS on CT was 2 ± 3 mm, and 2 ± 4 mm by TCS. The Pearson correlation coefficient (r ² ) was .96 between TCS and CT measurements (p < .001). The Bland-Altman analysis found a proportional bias of 0.69 mm for the DTV with a limit of agreement ranging between -3.04 and 2.53 mm. For the MLS, the proportional bias was 0.23 mm with limits of agreements between -3.5 and 3.95. The area under the ROC curve was .97 for the detection of hydrocephalus by DTV on TCS, with a best threshold of 5.72 mm (Sensitivity [Se] = 92% Specificity [Sp] = 92.1%).
Conclusions: TCS seems to be a reliable and accurate bedside technique for measuring both DTV and MLS, which might allow detection of acute hydrocephalus among NICU patients.
(© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Neuroimaging published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society of Neuroimaging.)