DOPPLER ARTIFACTS AND PITFALLS
DEBORAH J. RUBENS

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
30 years ago Doppler was confined to Vascular Labs for imaging of the carotids
• Today it pervades diagnostic US-it is the mainstay for venous diagnosis, and is used extensively in the abdomen, pelvis, OB and small parts imaging
• 30 years ago we had continuous wave Doppler
• Today we have pulsed wave Doppler (which localizes the depth of the signal), color Doppler (which allows us to look at multiple vessels simultaneously for patency and flow direction) and power Doppler (which sums the Doppler signal and permits detection of slow flow states)
• Over 50% of the examinations performed in our laboratory each day require Doppler US