Processing algorithms for color flow Doppler

An examination is made of the design decisions made for five color-flow Doppler units: Acuson, ATL, Hewlett Packard (500), Quantum (Quad 1), and Toshiba (270A). The five instruments were examined with an echo ultrasound Doppler phantom that includes a flowmeter to simulate reproducible rates of flow. Blood-mimicking fluid consisted of distilled water, glycerine, and 10- and 30-μm polyvinyl microspheres pumped through 0.5-cm-inner-diameter vessels embedded in a tissue-mimicking block. In addition, three of the units were tested with small vessels (1-3-mm inner diameter) and slow flow (to 5 cm/s) with bovine liver submerged in water as the intervening tissue. A study was made of the different imaging effects resulting from changed scanning parameters, so that inferences about design decisions of the different manufacturers could be surmised from these experiments