October 1, 2002Journal of Neuroimaging
Is Cerebral Microembolism in Mechanical Prosthetic Heart Valves Clinically Relevant?
Why the study?
Are high-intensity transient signals (HITS) detected by transcranial Doppler clinically relevant in patients with mechanical prosthetic heart valves?
Population
36 patients with mechanical prosthetic heart valves (20 women, aged 58 +/- 13 years)
Comparison
100% O2 inhalation during transcranial Doppler… vs Baseline TCD monitoring without O2 inhalation
Design
Cohort
Authors
Discussion
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Member takes
Implication
May reassure clinicians on HITS cognitive irrelevance in mechanical valves; hypothesis-generating and requires prospective validation before practice change.
Structured PICO
Are high-intensity transient signals (HITS) detected by transcranial Doppler clinically relevant in patients with mechanical prosthetic heart valves?
P
Population
36 patients with mechanical prosthetic heart valves (20 women, aged 58 +/- 13 years)
I
Intervention
100% O2 inhalation during transcranial Doppler (TCD) monitoring
C
Comparator
Baseline TCD monitoring without O2 inhalation
O
Outcome
High-intensity transient signals (HITS) rate and its correlation with clinical symptoms and cognitive performancesurrogate
High-intensity transient signals (HITS) in patients with mechanical prosthetic heart valves do not correlate with cognitive functioning or clinical symptoms, suggesting they are mostly harmless epiphenomena.
Cite This Study
Nadareishvili et al. (2002) studied this question.