Power Doppler US: a potentially useful alternative to mean frequency-based color Doppler US.

TLDR

The study introduces power Doppler (PD) ultrasonography and compares it to conventional color Doppler (CD) imaging. PD was implemented on two commercial US scanners and evaluated on a phantom, a normal kidney, and testis, with direct comparison to CD imaging. PD avoids aliasing, is angle‑independent, and offers a broader dynamic range, potentially improving sensitivity and revealing flow better than CD in some situations.

Abstract

PURPOSE: The authors present a preliminary report to demonstrate a new color Doppler (CD) ultrasonography (US) technique called power Doppler (PD), which displays the total integrated Doppler power in color, and to compare PD with CD imaging, which generally displays an estimate of the mean Doppler frequency shift. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two standard commercial US scanners that encode the integrated power in the Doppler signal in color were used to demonstrate PD. A standard nonflow-containing US phantom, a normal right kidney, and a torsive and normal contralateral testis were scanned in the power mode. In the phantom and kidney, results with CD and PD were directly compared. RESULTS: PD does not alias, is relatively angle independent, and displays background noise in a way that increases the usable dynamic range of a US scanner. This extended dynamic range should increase machine sensitivity and may demonstrate increased flow in certain circumstances. CONCLUSION: PD is a new CD imaging imaging mode that might be superior to CD in some cases.