Principles and Applications of Doppler Color Flow Imaging

Abstract

Over the past 15 years the development of diagnostic ultrasonography has been marked by a series of major technological steps, of which the introduction of Doppler color flow imaging (DCFI) is the most recent and potentially one of the most significant. The transition from A-mode to B-mode display of the ultrasound signal, followed by the introduction of gray scale imaging in the early 1970s represented the first major improvements in ultrasound imaging since the beginning of the clinical use of ultrasound. Several years later real-time imaging became commercially available, making possible an entirely new range of diagnostic applications. Each of these steps has resulted in major improvements in the clinical utility of ultrasound for diagnosis. The most recent technological development comparable in potential impact to the development of gray scale and realtime is the introduction of methods to process both tissue and flow data from the backscattered ultrasound signal simultaneously — Doppler color flow imaging.