Jugular veins in transient global amnesia: innocent bystanders.

Background and Purpose—Transient global amnesia (TGA) has been associated with an increased prevalence of internal jugular valve insufficiency and many patients report Valsalva-associated maneuvers before TGA onset. These findings have led to the assumption of hemodynamic alterations in intracranial veins inducing focal hippocampal ischemia. We investigated this hypothesis in patients with TGA and control subjects. Methods—Seventy-five patients with TGA and 75 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects were enrolled into a cross-sectional study. Extracranial and transcranial high-resolution venous echo-color-Doppler sonography was performed blindly in all patients and control subjects. Blood flow direction and velocities were recorded at the internal jugular veins, basal veins of Rosenthal, and vein of Galen, both at rest and during Valsalva-associated maneuvers. Results—Mean age of patients with TGA was 60.3±8.0 years (median, 60 years; range, 44–78 years); 44 (59%) were female (female/male ratio: 1.42). Inte...