In an effort to isolate and characterize the emission of acoustic signals from saccular aneurysms, we made a series of invasive microphone recordings from experimental aneurysms created on the common carotid arteries of dogs using the vein pouch technique. Using a modified probe microphone, we compared recordings from the common carotid artery before creation of the aneurysm to recordings from the aneurysmal surface, both before and after clip occlusion. We then performed spectral analysis, band-pass filtering, and spectrographic analysis to compare the dominant frequency and width of the frequency range In addition, structural fatigue and arterial dilation as a result of arterial wall vibration have been documented. 5 The damaging effect of the vibration has been shown to increase when the vibrations occur at the resonant frequencies of the arterial wall. 6 Advanced methods of acoustic spectral analysis can be used to examine the complicated dynamic system influencing vascular flow within and distal to the saccular aneurysms.Research involving sound emission and acoustic spectral analysis to examine flow properties and aneurysmal pathophysiology was initiated by intraoperative observations of clear aneurysmal sounds distinct from the sound of parent vessels and by reports of cranial bruits detectable with a clinical stethoscope in a small percentage of patients with saccular aneu- Received July 11, 1989; accepted April 4, 1990. rysms. "9 Such acoustic signals are generated by a complicated dynamic system involving interactions between blood flow disturbances under varying pressures and the aneurysmal wall, the aneurysmal neck, and the feeding blood vessels. These signals must be examined to provide an understanding of factors leading to the formation and rupture of the aneurysms.Previous reports have examined sound emission originating from saccular aneurysms with the goal of noninvasively detecting their presence in a clinical setting.10

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