[Contents]
1. Doppler shift
2. Doppler effect
3. Doppler angle
4. Continuous Wave
Doppler
5. Pulsed Wave
Doppler
6.Color Flow
Doppler
7. Power Doppler (Energy
mode, Color Angio)
8. Spectral Analysis
1. Doppler shift
1) Doppler effect is used non-invasively to detect blood
flow & the motion of body structures
2) Frequency of the reflected beam will be different than
the initial frequency
- doppler shift =
difference between the transmitted and received frequencies [★★]
3) Equations
: fd = fr- ft
fd= Doppler shift
fr= reflected frequency
ft= transmitted frequency
2. Doppler effect
1) A change in reflected frequency caused by reflector
motion [Hz]
- Positive (toward) / Negative
(away)
3. Doppler angle
1) The angle that the ultrasound beam makes with the
direction of flow
2) Doppler Shift signal is largest when the blood flow is
directly toward or away from transducer
- Parallel transducer orientation is not possible
- Ultrasound beam will be at angle with respect to the
vessel
3) Doppler Equation [★★★★★]
: Δf = 2 • FT • V • cosϴ / C
Δf = Doppler shift
FT = transmitted
frequency (doppler frequency)
↑ doppler frequency → ↑ doppler shift
V = reflector/RBC speed (velocity
of the interface)
↓ reflector speed → ↓ doppler shift
ϴ = doppler angle of incidence
cosϴ:
smaller the angle, larger the Δf (↑ doppler angle → ↓ doppler shift)
:
cosine changes rapidly at large angles
-
angles of 60⁰ or less are recommended to reduce error
C = propagating speed (velocity
of the medium)
4) Velocity estimation in
doppler US
- based on measurement of doppler angle of incidence
- angle correct
cursor should be adjusted parallel to the vessel wall
* system control on
doppler that adjusts PRF: spectral velocity scale
5) Angle should be between 30 -60
- Above 60⁰: too little f shift
- Below 30⁰: increase beam attenuation due to
longer path lengths
- Image is best obtained at 90⁰
: cannot detect
frequency shift at incident angle of 90⁰
(perpendicular)
- Doppler is most accurate at 0⁰
: maximum frequency shift will be
obtained at 0⁰
4. Continuous Wave Doppler [★]
1) continuously transmitting and receiving an ultrasound
signal
2) Transducer
- 2 crystal
elements, one transmits and one receives
: One crystal in continuously
transmitting
: The other is continuously
receiving
- Advantage
: High velocities are accurately
measured
: crystals overlap to produce a
region of maximum sensitivity
→
most accurate Doppler shift info
: higher sensitivity and ease in
detecting small doppler shifts
- Disadvantage: range ambiguity
- need to change angle with change in frequency (increase
your f = greater beam attenuation)
- no damping is applied
3) Receiver
- detects the differences between f when there is a
reflector motion (Doppler shift)
- demodulation of the signal
- Phase quadrature detection determines the direction of the shift
: Bi directional systems:
determine motion and flow
: Uni or non-directional systems:
only detect motion
- Threshold function eliminates noise and weaker signals
- CW detects flow anywhere within the sensitive region,
regardless of depth
→ can be confusing with 2
vessels at once
4) CW doppler does not provide Range resolution
- range resolution
: ability to determine depth from
which an echo has arrived
: sound must be pulsed
- echo arrival time from each
pulse can be measured
5. Pulsed Wave
Doppler
1) designed to overcome the lack of range resolution in
continuous wave
2) Transducer
- Number of Crystals: One crystal, alternates between
sending and receiving
: low quality factor, low
sensitivity, wide bandwidth
- Advantage
: Echoes arise only from the area
of interrogation (sample volume or Gate)
: greatest advantage being able
to select the exact location
- Disadvantage
: Aliasing, error in measuring
high velocities
3) Receiver
- detects the Doppler shift
- Range Gating
: allows to get depth information
: receives velocity from small
regions along ULS beam
6.Color Flow Doppler [★★]
1) Doppler shifts are coded
into colors and superimposed on the existing
B-mode image
- color and B-mode images are formed
from separate pulses
: frequency used for color
doppler is generally lower than B-mode image
- color threshold (priority
control) [★★★]
: controls gray-scale brightness at which color will be displayed
: ↓ color threshold - color will overwrite vessel
or cardiac wall
: spatial
resolution (axial & latera) resolution
in color doppler: always poorer than
in B-mode
- Determining spatial resolution of color
image: frequency & line density
- frame rate decrease
when color doppler is activated
: more pulses are fired on each line of sight
- once color doppler is selected, the system automatically
turns off all but 1-2 focal zones
: 1-2 pulses per
scan line are used to create the underlying B-mode image
2) Color doppler is based on PW: subject to range resolution
and aliasing
3) Velocity Mode: displays average
values
- Colors = flow direction [★★★]
: Black
= no Doppler shift (flow perpendicular
to sound beam)
: Above black region (red) = flow toward the transducer (+ doppler shift)
: Below black region (blue) =
flow away from the transducer (- doppler shift)
: highest positive doppler shift (yellow/orange)
4) Variance Mode (Variance) [★★]
- Velocity info
: + shift = colors in top half
: -shift = colors in bottom half
- Distinguishes
laminar from turbulent flow
- Variance maps display different colors from side to side
: Left side = laminar flow
: Right side = turbulent flow
(yellow: turbulent toward, green: turbulent
away)
5) Packet size (= ensemble length, shots per line, dwell time) [★★]
- # of pulse (listen cycles) per
acoustic scan line
: for
color doppler, each line of sight must be pulsed multiple times.
- ↑ packet size →
↓ frame rate, improved
signal-to-noise ratio
6) Doppler signal
spectral display
- depicts relative signal power (amplitude) at each frequency in the
doppler signal
(depicts the frequency bandwidth,
range of amplitude in reflected signal)
- z-axis (brightness)
on doppler spectrum = amplitude
: adjust
gain to increase
amplification
9) Color sample gate
- parameter to
describe axial length of sampling volume for a color pixel
7. Power Doppler (Energy mode, Color
Angio)
1) Doppler shift colorized without consideration of
direction or speed
- non-directional, not angle dependent
- will only show that flow is present
- colorized amplitude of
reflected doppler signal
2) Advantage
- Increased sensitivity to low flows (Venous flow, Flow in
small vessels)
- Not affected by doppler angles
- No aliasing
3) Limitations
- No measurements of velocity or direction
- Lower FR, (reduced Temporal resolution) when compared to
conventional color flow doppler
- Motion sensitive
8. Spectral Analysis
1) determine the distribution and
magnitude of frequency shifts in the reflected doppler signal
2) Current Methods
- For PW or CW doppler = Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)
- For color doppler = Auto-correlation function
3) Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)
- processes PW & CW Doppler
- very accurate
- display all individual velocities
- distinguishes laminar (similar velocities) from turbulent
flow (chaotic)
4) Auto-correlation function
- analyzes color flow
- faster than FFT, not as accurate as FFT
- used when larger amounts of data need to be processed
5) spectral window
- area underneath the systolic peak on the doppler waveform
that is absent of echoes
-filled in when
: the doppler sample volume size is large compared to the size of
the vessel
: turbulent
flow is present
: doppler
gain is set too high
: position
of doppler sample volume is not centered within the vessel
Reference
* Davies Ultrasound Physics review
* https://sites.google.com/site/lindadmsportfolio/ultrasound-physics/
* https://sites.google.com/site/nataljasultrasoundphysics/
* https://sites.google.com/site/ektasphysicseportfolio/doppler