Abstract
Transcranial sonography (TCS) enables displaying of intracranial structures in the B-mode. Recently, TCS has been established mostly as a tool for the diagnosis and monitoring of degenerative brain disorders, less frequently also for the diagnosis and monitoring of other intracranial pathologic processes.
Transtemporal and transfrontal approaches are most frequently used to display the intracranial structures. Technological advances enabled standardization of the TCS and definition of the standard imaging planes.
These standard imaging planes enable evaluation of echogenicity and the size of the different intracranial structures, such as substantia nigra, midbrain raphe, thalamus, caudate nucleus, lentiform nucleus, insular cortex, cerebral or cerebellar white matter, dentate nucleus, hippocampus and ventricular system. Pathological findings of increased or decreased echogenicity, the width or the area of the individual intracranial structures can be found not only in various degenerative brain disorders, where the TCS plays the role in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis, but also in patients with cerebrovascular diseases, hydrocephalus or intracranial hypertension.
The review brings information about usefulness of the TCS in patients with neurological and psychiatric diseases.