DOPPLER ULTRASOUND : PRINCIPLES & PRACTICE

INTRODUCTION :

In recent years, the capabilities of ultrasound flow imaging have increased enormously. Color flow imaging is now commonplace and facilities such as ‘power’ or ‘energy’ Doppler provide new ways of imaging flow. With such versatility, it is tempting to employ the technique for ever more demanding applications and to try to measure increasingly subtle changes in the maternal and fetal circulations. To avoid misinterpretation of results, however, it is essential for the user of Doppler ultrasound to be aware of the factors that affect the Doppler signal, be it a color flow image or a Doppler sonogram.

Competent use of Doppler ultrasound techniques requires an understanding of three key components:

(1) The capabilities and limitations of Doppler ultrasound;
(2) The different parameters which contribute to the flow display;
(3) Blood flow in arteries and veins.

This chapter describes how these components contribute to the quality of Doppler ultrasound images. Guidelines are given on how to obtain good images in all flow imaging modes. For further reading on the subject, there are texts available covering Doppler ultrasound and blood flow theory in more detail.

BASIC PRINCIPLES :

Ultrasound images of flow, whether color flow or spectral Doppler, are essentially obtained from measurements of movement. In ultrasound scanners, a series of pulses is transmitted to detect movement of blood. Echoes from stationary tissue are the same from pulse to pulse. Echoes from moving scatterers exhibit slight differences in the time for the signal to be returned to the receiver (Figure 1 ). These differences can be measured as a direct time difference or, more usually, in terms of a phase shift from which the ‘Doppler frequency’ is obtained (Figure 2). They are then processed to produce either a color flow display or a Doppler sonogram.

Figure 1 Ultrasound velocity measurement. The diagram shows a scatterer S moving at velocity V with a beam/flow angle q.
The velocity can be calculated by the difference in transmit-to-receive time from the first pulse to the second (t2), as the scatterer moves through the beam.

 

 Figure 2: Doppler ultrasound. Doppler ultrasound measures the movement of the scatterers through the beam as a phase change in the received signal. The resulting Doppler frequency can be used to measure velocity if the beam/flow angle is known.

As can be seen from Figures 1 and 2, there has to be motion in the direction of the beam; if the flow is perpendicular to the beam, there is no relative motion from pulse to pulse. The size of the Doppler signal is dependent on:

(1) Blood velocity: as velocity increases, so does the Doppler frequency;
(2) Ultrasound frequency: higher ultrasound frequencies give increased Doppler frequency. As in B-mode, lower ultrasound frequencies have better penetration.
(3) The choice of frequency is a compromise between better sensitivity to flow or better penetration;
(4 The angle of insonation: the Doppler frequency increases as the Doppler ultrasound beam becomes more aligned to the flow direction (the angle q between the beam and the direction of flow becomes smaller). This is of the utmost importance in the use of Doppler ultrasound. The implications are illustrated schematically in Figure 3.

 

Figure 3 - Effect of the Doppler angle in the sonogram. (A) higher-frequency Doppler signal is obtained if the beam is aligned more to the direction of flow. In the diagram, beam (A) is more ali)gned than (B) and produces higher-frequency Doppler signals. The beam/flow angle at (C) is almost 90° and there is a very poor Doppler signal. The flow at (D) is away from the beam and there is a negative signal.

All types of Doppler ultrasound equipment employ filters to cut out the high amplitude, low-frequency Doppler signals resulting from tissue movement, for instance due to vessel wall motion. Filter frequency can usually be altered by the user, for example, to exclude frequencies below 50, 100 or 200 Hz. This filter frequency limits the minimum flow velocities that can be measured.

 

 

CONTINUOUS WAVE AND PULSED WAVE :

As the name suggests, continuous wave systems use continuous transmission and reception of ultrasound. Doppler signals are obtained from all vessels in the path of the ultrasound beam (until the ultrasound beam becomes sufficiently attenuated due to depth). Continuous wave Doppler ultrasound is unable to determine the specific location of velocities within the beam and cannot be used to produce color flow images. Relatively inexpensive Doppler ultrasound systems are available which employ continuous wave probes to give Doppler output without the addition of B-mode images. Continuous wave Doppler is also used in adult cardiac scanners to investigate the high velocities in the aorta.

 

 

Continuous-wave doppler transducer

 

 

 

Pulsed-wave doppler transducer

Doppler ultrasound in general and obstetric ultrasound scanners uses pulsed wave ultrasound. This allows measurement of the depth (or range) of the flow site. Additionally, the size of the sample volume (or range gate) can be changed. Pulsed wave ultrasound is used to provide data for Doppler sonograms and color flow images.

  

Aliasing