Do you need guidance in the vascular network? Color doppler mode provides your “road map” – a perfect guidance system
It may not always be easy to identify blood vessel structures on an ultrasound grey scale image as the vessel networks and flow patterns can be laid out in a complex manner.
Using Color Doppler Mode, flow velocities within vessels are color-coded. The intensity of the color is a function of velocity. Flow towards and away from the transducer is indicated either as red or blue, respectively. To remember this, use the name of a famous yellow cartoon character as an acronym: BART – Blue Away, Red Towards (with the top of the screen as your reference point).
Benefits of the Color Doppler Mode:
- Provides a visual overview of flow within the vessel or heart
- Rapid identification of vessels, valves, turbulent flow
- Assess flow direction and velocity
- Quantify volume and percent vascularity when combined with 3D Mode
- Guidance for reproducible quantification of flow velocities using Pulsed-Wave Doppler
When should you use the Color Doppler Mode?
- Identify area of stenosis or thrombosis (e.g. TAC or aneurism models)
- Determine the presence and amount of arterial plaques and associated turbulent flow
- Find small vessels such as mouse coronary arteries, femoral and arcuate arteries
- Evaluate blood flow after a stroke or other conditions causing impaired blood flow
- Monitor blood flow to major organs such as heart, kidney, liver pancreas, carotid, abdominal aorta, and others