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Doppler Imaging: Basic Principles and Clinical Application

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Intraoperative Ultrasound (IOUS) in Neurosurgery

Abstract

Doppler imaging is a technique that enables to obtain information about blood flow in selected vessels; it is superimposed to the B-Mode imaging in order to obtain a colorimetric representation of blood flow encoding blood direction and velocities. Moreover, it enables to achieve a graphical representation of blood velocity along the cardiac cycle. In neuroscience, it is widely utilized in imaging blood flow of the supra-aortic trunks, both as a vascular screening in asymptomatic patients and as imaging modality for the follow-up of carotid plaques or for the detection of diseases of the vascular wall. In neurosurgery, intraoperative Doppler imaging enables to reach a good visualization of macrovascularized lesions, increasing the accuracy and safety of the interventions.

Doppler imaging is an operator-dependent technique that should be performed by a trained operator with extensive knowledge of the principles of imaging generation.

The physical principles and main clinical applications of this technique will be discussed in this chapter.

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Caldiera, V., Caputi, L., Ciceri, E. (2016). Doppler Imaging: Basic Principles and Clinical Application. In: Prada, F., Solbiati, L., Martegani, A., DiMeco, F. (eds) Intraoperative Ultrasound (IOUS) in Neurosurgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25268-1_9

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