Introduction

The ability to assess and monitor total cerebral blood flow volume (tCBFV) is clinically important particularly in patients with cerebrovascular disorders, serious head trauma, and increased intracranial pressure. Increased intracranial pressure which is a common condition in neurologic intensive care units and reducing tCBFV is among the therapeutic alternatives, ^{1, 2}The prevalence of atherosclerosis, ischemia, infarction, and neurodegenerative disorders increases with age and causes impairment in cerebral perfusion hence, the age-dependent changes in tCBFV should be understood and considered.³

Extracranial carotid artery disease is responsible for more than 50% of all the cerebrovascular disorders.⁴Flow 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 disease⁵. 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

The main goal of this study was therefore to assess blood flow velocity and waveform parameters, of the CCAs in healthy adults using ultrasound and to evaluate its relationship with sex, body mass index (BMI) and as well as its age-dependent changes.

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Dr Annongu Isaac Terkimbi

Department of Radiology, College of Health Sciences, Benue State University Makurdi