Nov 20, 2015

Color Doppler

Non-medical people would think that echocardiographic images are always black and white, but it is not true. Please take a look at a video below.


The right panel shows the same image as the left panel with color data. You can see blue and red flows by color Doppler. These colorful signals are not bloodstream themselves but reflect the direction of blood flows in the heart.

Red signals indicate blood flow toward the echocardiographic probe, which is located at the top of an image. On the other hand, blood flow away from the probe is shown in blue. This rule of the color mapping on echocardiography is universal.

Who discovered this color Doppler technique? The answer is two Japanese guys, an expert engineer and a cardiac surgeon (Omoto R, Yokote Y, et al. Jpn Heart J. 1984;25:325-40).

I am very proud of the discovery by the Japanese, but few know about it even if they are Japanese medical staff in the filed of cardiology.