Accuracy and reproducibility of a novel dual-beam vector Doppler method.

Conventional Doppler ultrasound (US) investigations are limited to detect only the axial component of the blood velocity vector. A novel dual-beam method has been recently proposed in which the Doppler angle is estimated through a reference US beam, and the velocity magnitude through a measuring US beam, respectively. In this study, the performance of such a method has been assessed quantitatively through in vitro and in vivo measurements made in different experimental conditions. In vitro, more than 300 acquisitions were completed using seven transducers to insonify a straight tube phantom at different Doppler angles. In steady laminar flow conditions, the velocity magnitude was measured with mean error of -1.9% (95% confidence interval: -2.33% to -1.47%) and standard deviation of 3.4%, with respect to a reference velocity. In pulsatile flow conditions, reproducibility tests of the entire velocity waveforms provided an average coefficient of variation (CV) of 6.9%. For peak velocity measurements made at five Doppler angles and three flow rates, the intrasession and intersession CVs were in the range 0.8-3.7% and 2.9-10.6%, respectively. The peak systolic velocities (PSVs) in the common carotid arteries of 21 volunteers were estimated with 95% limits of agreement of +/- 9.6 cm/s (intersession). This analysis shows that the proposed dual-beam method is capable of overcoming the Doppler angle ambiguity by producing reliable velocity measurements over a large set of experimental conditions.