What Is Vascular Ultrasound?

What Is Vascular Ultrasound?

Color Doppler Ultrasound
Color Doppler Ultrasound (Color Doppler Ultrasound) is referred to as color Doppler ultrasound. Because of its non-invasive, simple and real-time display of blood flow changes, it has become the most important method for screening vascular surgical diseases. The rise of color Doppler ultrasound has had a huge impact on the non-invasive diagnosis of limb vascular diseases. It can replace invasive angiography in the diagnosis of limb vascular diseases such as aneurysms and arteriovenous fistulas. It can not only directly display the changes in the anatomical structure of vascular diseases, such as anatomical variation, the thickness of the vessel wall, the size of the plaque, the inner diameter of the residual lumen, and the filling of blood flow signals in the lumen, etc., but also provide a wealth of information. Hemodynamic information.

Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound
Transcranial Doppler (TCD) is a technique that uses Doppler ultrasound to penetrate the thin part of the skull and the natural bone hole to directly obtain the blood flow signals of the large intracranial blood vessels. One of the important means of disease. Diagnosis and follow-up of cervical and intracranial arterial disease. To evaluate the cerebral vascular reserve function before carotid endarterectomy and carotid stenting, and to determine whether there is a risk of hypoperfusion in patients with arterial stenosis. Intraoperative cerebral blood flow microembolism monitoring, TCD is currently the only means of real-time detection of detached microemboli signals. Observation of the efficacy of drug and stent therapy plays a huge role.

Intravascular ultrasound
Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) was first conceived in the 1970s as an intraluminal vascular imaging technique that can be safely performed in peripheral arteries. It can provide accurate blood vessel diameter, arterial wall thickness, the nature, size, location of atherosclerotic plaque, and the occupancy of the blood vessel lumen, as well as histological examination. The advantage is that it can make up for the deficiencies that angiography and CT may cause deviations and some structures cannot be clearly displayed, and there is no radiation damage to the operator. It is still in the early stages of development. Used to assist other operations, such as angiography or balloon dilation; preoperative assessment of thoracic/abdominal aortic aneurysm, aortic dissection, carotid artery, subclavian artery stenosis, especially for patients with contraindications to contrast agents; handling interventional procedures Complications, such as endoleak, stent or filter displacement, etc.; can distinguish between normal and diseased vessel walls, and is more sensitive to vessel wall calcification and aneurysm; distinguish between true and false lumens of dissection.

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound
Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is a new type of ultrasound examination technology that injects special microbubble ultrasound contrast agents into the body through veins to enhance the reflected echo signals and improve the quality of ultrasound images. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound can be used to examine patients who are dissatisfied with conventional ultrasound and Doppler ultrasound, improving their detection rate and accuracy. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound can be used for: examination of extracranial arteries, understanding of lumen and intima-media thickness, and identification of carotid artery occlusion and pseudo-occlusion. The renal arteries, mesenteric arteries, celiac trunk arteries, lower extremity arteries, etc., which are poorly visualized by ordinary ultrasound. Examination and classification of endoleaks after endovascular repair.

Echocardiography
Ultrasound Cardiogram (UCG) is a non-invasive technique that uses ultrasound to examine the anatomy and activity of the heart and great vessels. Three-dimensional echocardiographic reconstruction, various stress echocardiographic tests (including exercise and drug-induced), transesophageal ultrasound, intravascular ultrasound, and contrast echocardiography are being studied and initially used in clinical practice. Observation of cardiac structure and function, such as valvular disease; assessment of blood perfusion in the target area, complications of myocardial infarction, such as cardiac rupture, ventricular aneurysm formation, etc.