Journal of neuroimaging : official journal of the American Society of Neuroimaging
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Multicenter Study
Novel robotic TCD ultrasound with bubbles versus standard care to detect right to left shunt: Study methods.
Right to left shunt (RLS), from patent foramen ovale (PFO) or elsewhere, is a recognized risk factor for stroke. Current standard of care for RLS diagnosis includes transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) which is insensitive, transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) which is invasive, and transcranial Doppler (TCD) which has excellent sensitivity and specificity for RLS but is heavily operator dependent and expertise is scarce. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the RLS detection rate of a novel robotic-assisted TCD (ra-TCD) to standard of care diagnostic techniques, including TTE, TEE, and TCD. ⋯ This is the first multicenter, prospective study evaluating the accuracy, feasibility, and safety of novel ra-TCD for the diagnosis of RLS as compared to standard of care diagnostics.