RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (TCD) measures blood flow velocities in the large cerebral vessels and thus, detects the risk of stroke. This report describes a capacity building program which enabled the use of TCD for detecting stroke risk and also describes the pattern of non-imaging TCD examinations seen in Nigerian children with sickle cell anaemia (SCA). PROCEDURE: Ten university graduates were trained on the use of TCD in a 5-day capacity building workshop after which, the three best candidates were employed to provide a 5-day a week TCD screening service in Lagos. Data from TCD examination collected between March 2011 and September 2013 were analysed and reported. RESULT: Between March 2011 and September 2013, 2,331 children with SCA aged 2-16 years had TCD studies. TCD's findings were classified as normal (standard risk) in 70.4%, conditional in 19% and abnormal (high risk) in 9.3%. The majority of children (76.9%) in the high risk category were aged 2-8 years. TCD study was inadequate for risk categorisation in 1.3% of the patients. CONCLUSION: Effective capacity building of middle level manpower is feasible and can provide a credible TCD screening service to communities with a high demand and a shortage of trained professionals. The pattern of TCD abnormalities seen in Africa are comparable to those obtained in several previous worldwide reports.
