Clinical Experience with Automatic Midline Echoencephalography: Cooperative Study of Three Neurosurgical Clinics'
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry: first published as 10.1136/jnnp.38.3.272 on 1 March 1975. Downloaded from Journal ofNeurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 1975, 38, 272-278 Clinical experience with automatic midline echoencephalography: cooperative study of three neurosurgical clinics' M. KLINGER, E. KAZNER,2 TH. GRUMME, V. AMTENBRINK, G. GRAEF, K. H. HARTMANN, H. HOPMAN, W. MEESE, AND B. VOGEL From the Neurosurgical University Clinics, Berlin, Erlangen, and Miinchen, GFR SYNOPSIS Computerized midline echoencephalography was developed in order to make the determination of the midline more objective. In a group study involving the neurosurgical clinics in Berlin, Erlangen, and Munich, a total of 1 889 patients with various intracranial diseases was examined by this method. An exact analysis of the results obtained is presented: 18 % were un- satisfactory. A-scan echoencephalography has become this would limit the number of investigators Protected by copyright. widely used in recent years and is now an indis- considerably. White (1972), on the other hand, pensable tool in the diagnosis of intracranial goes so far as to say that he does not consider lesions (Grossman, 1966; Pia and Geletneky, such a test to be of clinical value if it depends 1968; Schiefer et al., 1968). However, the upon the presence of a neurological specialist. literature contains many reports on the difficul- ties this method presents, especially for the METHOD beginner (McKinney, 1964; Jefferson and Hill, 1966, 1968; Kramer, 1968; White, 1967, 1970, In an effort to eliminate as much as possible the 1972; White and Hanna, 1974). Experienced factor 'experience' in the determination of the mid- line echo and to provide scientific objectivity, there investigators have emphasized for years that has been no lack of attempts to standardize this prolonged practice is necessary before echo- examination, especially on the North American encephalography can yield truly reliable and continent.
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