
The phase shifts measured from left and right apertures are combined to give the axial and lateral velocity components. The main idea of Vector Doppler is to divide the transducer into three apertures: one at the center as the transmit aperture and two on each side as the receive apertures. The phase shift is found by taking the autocorrelation between echoes from two consecutive firings. Vector Doppler is a natural extension of the traditional 1D Doppler imaging based on phase shift. There are two major methods of 2D velocity estimation using ultrasound: Speckle tracking and crossed beam Vector Doppler, which are based on measuring the time shifts and phase shifts respectively. 2D velocity is useful even if complex flow conditions such as stenosis and bifurcation exist. Unlike 1D Doppler imaging, which can only provide one-dimensional velocity and has dependency on the beam to flow angle, 2D velocity estimation using Doppler ultrasound is able to generate velocity vectors with axial and lateral velocity components. This procedure is frequently used to examine children's hearts for heart disease because there is no age or size requirement. However, the calculation result will end up identical. Īlthough "Doppler" has become synonymous with "velocity measurement" in medical imaging, in many cases it is not the frequency shift (Doppler shift) of the received signal that is measured, but the phase shift (when the received signal arrives). The combination of flow and tissue velocities can be used for estimating left ventricular filling pressure, although only under certain conditions. In addition, with slightly different filter/gain settings, the method can measure tissue velocities by tissue Doppler echocardiography. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound-using gas-filled microbubble contrast media can be used to improve velocity or other flow-related medical measurements.Īn advantage of Doppler echocardiography is that it can be used to measure blood flow within the heart without invasive procedures such as cardiac catheterization. Velocity measurements allow assessment of cardiac valve areas and function, any abnormal communications between the left and right side of the heart, any leaking of blood through the valves ( valvular regurgitation), calculation of the cardiac output and calculation of E/A ratio (a measure of diastolic dysfunction). One of the limitations is that the ultrasound beam should be as parallel to the blood flow as possible. An echocardiogram uses high frequency sound waves to create an image of the heart while the use of Doppler technology allows determination of the speed and direction of blood flow by utilizing the Doppler effect.Īn echocardiogram can, within certain limits, produce accurate assessment of the direction of blood flow and the velocity of blood and cardiac tissue at any arbitrary point using the Doppler effect. Doppler echocardiography is a procedure that uses Doppler ultrasonography to examine the heart.
