Clinical Implementation of Continuous-Wave Doppler: It Made All the Difference.

Today, Doppler echocardiography is central to our ability to determine cardiovascular hemodynamics, especially in valvular heart diseases, noninvasively. Continuous-wave Doppler (CWD) plays a central diagnostic role in the diagnosis and management of patients with aortic stenosis. The development and use of CWD in aortic stenosis was due to the pioneering work of Dr. Liv Hatle and her outstanding medical and engineering colleagues in Norway. The author was fortunate to be the first to use the early CWD instruments in North America. Therefore, this article highlights key lessons learned: the importance and value of key contributions made by our engineering and young cardiology and sonographer colleagues, the key importance of the independent PEDOF CWD probe as well as use of the audio signal for accurate detection of high-velocity flows, and the value of CWD for the diagnosis and management of other cardiovascular conditions.