ABSTRACT
Background: Stroke is a clinical syndrome, which describes a sudden neurological deficit of presumed vascular origin. The risk factors for stroke are diabetes mellitus, smoking, alcohol and hypertension. Colour doppler ultrasound is one of the important tool for the evaluation of exracranial insufficiency of the carotid arteries. This study was performed to assess the carotid arteries with the help of color doppler in carotid artery disease.Methods: Of the 100 patients who had come to our department during the study period with symptoms of cerebrovascular disease such as transient episodes of neurological dysfunction, sudden weakness or numbness, hemiparesis, focal neurological deficits, sudden loss of consciousness, altered sensorium, aphasia, slurring of speech, diminution or loss of vision were included into the study. CT scan of brain and color doppler evaluation for the extracranial carotid arteries was done for all the patients to assess the atheromatous disease of extracranial carotid arteries and comparison with brain changes in cerebrovascular disease patients.Results: Of the 100 patients included into the study, 51% were males and 49% were females. 59% of the patients were above 61 years of age, 24% of them were between 51-60 years and 12% were between 41-50 years. 82% of the patients had the presence of atherosclerotic plaque while 18% had increased intima-media thickness without the plaque. Among the patients with atherosclerotic plaque, 63.4% had diabetes and 68.3% had hypertension. <50% stenosis was seen among 45.1% of the patients while 36.6% had between 50-70%. Near total occlusion was seen in 6.1% of the patients.Conclusions: The color Doppler sonography is a useful tool in evaluation of extra cranial course of carotid vessels. It is a non-invasive, cheap, faster modality without any side effects. Therefore, it could be used in predicting CVA in patients with carotid atheromatous disease.
ABSTRACT
Background: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a well-established imaging technique, which are available at most larger hospitals today. Due to the combination of this high contrast and the fact that it is a non-ionizing radiation, MRI is often used for investigation of a large range of pathologies in almost all parts of the body. This study was performed to describe the MRI features in various types of lesions causing painful hip joint, as well as identify the common lesions seen in painful hip joint and to analyse the severity and extent of the underlying lesion in various conditions of hip joint pain, and early detection of pathological changes helpful to prognosticate and influence therapeutic decisions.Methods: This descriptive study was done on 50 patients with complaints of hip joint pain were included into the study. Appropriate MRI sequences and multi-planar imaging performed for every patient.Results: Out of the 50 patients included in the study, 74% of them were males who were predominantly affected with hip pain. The most common age group which was affected was 51-60 years (20%) and 21-30 years (20%). The most common pathology amongst the patients was Avascular necrosis of femoral head seen in 44% of the patients, osteoarthritis was seen in 54 patients, Tuberculosis in 5 patients, 2 had Perthe’s disease, joint effusion was observed in 6 patients.Conclusions: MRI of the hip joint is an informative, diagnostic, non-invasive, rapid and accurate imaging modality for the assessment of hip pain and sufficient imaging modality for delineation of different hip joint pathology.