Once you understand the basic concepts of color flow imaging, you can begin to recognize and evaluate both normal and abnormal blood flow patterns from various imaging windows. This section presents examples of normal blood flow, and some frequently seen cardiac abnormalities.
Whether your evaluation is normal or abnormal blood flow, remember the following points:
- The color bar indicates both the toward/away color orientation and the color map used.
- It is normal to see a small amount of localized turbulence adjacent to rapidly moving values.
- Thoroughly interrogate each blood flow area in all three dimensions
Be aware that CFI lets you visualize blood flow from imaging windows not typically useful in PW Doppler. Unlike PW Doppler, which only provided information from the sample volume, CFI offers spatial information about an area of blood flow.
In any blood flow jet, even one with a main vector nearly perpendicular to the transducer, there are usually more parallel components that CFI can detect. For example, in the parasternal long-axis view, where normal blood flow is almost perpendicular to the transducer, PW Doppler produces a very poor quality spectral display. However, CFI produces a good estimate of the spatial distribution of the blood flow, the relative blood flow velocities, and whether the blood flow is laminar or turbulent.