Phonoangiography: a new noninvasive diagnostic method for studying arterial disease.

Phonoangiography, the quantitative analysis of sounds produced by blood flow, has been used to investigate local fluid motion in arteries narrowed by atherosclerosis. The sound spectra measured in vivo were found to be identical to those obtained in laboratory investigations of turbulent pipe flow. A theoretical model is proposed which: (a) quantitatively relates the in vivo and in vitro data, and (b) allows estimation of the clinically important parameters of arterial diameter, flow velocity, local turbulence intensity, and wall pressure fluctuations. The results of calculations using data from human subjects agree with known arterial diameters and blood flow velocities.