Color Doppler flow imaging in interventional ultrasound of the kidney.

Color Doppler flow imaging has been used as a supplementum to the ultrasound guidance in 16 renal biopsies, 8 nephrostomies and 6 renal cyst punctures. Puncture of intrarenal vessels could be avoided and fluid flow as in aspiration of cyst fluid or urine and drug injection could be monitored. No complications occurred in this series. Although this new technique has some problems such as low resolution of the sonogram, low frame rate and high price of the equipment, these are not essential and will be solved in the near future. It is concluded that color Doppler monitoring is a new promising adjunct in interventional ultrasound.