Usefulness of Colour Doppler? Pretty pictures?

Re: Usefulness of Colour Doppler? Pretty pictures?

Rajat — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 00:36:01 GMT

Well put Sarah! I am sure you will enjoy the additional features it does make ultrasound so much more fun and versatile! And allows space for you to grow your skills!

Re: Usefulness of Colour Doppler? Pretty pictures?

Sarah Keir — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:05:08 GMT

Thank you all for your replies!

The Boss has bitten the bullet and ordered the all- singing, all-dancing colour machine, to be here shortly. I put it to him that he could live without air con in his Aston Martin, but would he want to?

Sarah

Re: Usefulness of Colour Doppler? Pretty pictures?

Bob Russell — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:21:06 GMT

I would go for the pretty picture option any day! I hate to admit beyond the basics that is all ultrasound is to me. I get someone else to do the ultrasounds and give me a report. Probably a combination of age and lack of confidence!

Re: Usefulness of Colour Doppler? Pretty pictures?

Rob Loxley — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:31:21 GMT

[quote user="Sarah Keir"]So I need machine that will grow with me.[/quote]

Can the more basic machine / probes be upgraded at a later date?

Re: Usefulness of Colour Doppler? Pretty pictures?

Frances Barr — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:56:40 GMT

Hi Sarah,

I think Colour Doppler does make life easier for abdominal ultrasound, although cardiac work is what people often think of. I often found myself switching on the colour when trying to decide whether something was a vessel, or how vascular a region was before sticking in a needle. I guess your boss will want concrete examples if you're trying to make a business case. So....you'll find it much easier to identify porto-systemic shunts with colour Doppler tho'it's also possible without, it'll show up focal infarcts in spleen or kidney, show up liver lobe torsions in bunnies, show you an aortic thrombosis in cats or dogs, can show you ureters entering the bladder if you suspect ureteral ectopia etc etc.. It's a technology which you can perfectly well manage without, but it will pick up stuff that otherwise you're making an educated guess about.

But flow velocities tend to be less in the abdomen than for cardiac work. so just check with your supplier that the software could cope with abdominal and cardiac work. And ideally ask them to show you with the machine so you can judge for yourself. Most companies seem to be happy to come and demo their equipment.

Frances

Re: Usefulness of Colour Doppler? Pretty pictures?

Rajat — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 21:01:06 GMT

Hi Sarah

If the operator is keen all else will follow

Having observed echo's in final year of vet school and having a day of teaching, I largely taught myself how to do them. I did go to a couple of courses of intermediate and advanced echo after some time of practice , and the first few months did involve a lot of squinting at June Boons manual in the darkened room with some swearing and frustration! Learning the normal views is obviously essential, but you will get the hang of it soon enough through practice... a couple of thin dogs to practice on would be useful - greyhounds make great subjects! Colour really does make a difference and yes it does make for pretty pictures too!

Best of luck!

Raj

Re: Usefulness of Colour Doppler? Pretty pictures?

Sarah Keir — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 18:48:04 GMT

Thanks Raj,

Both machines come with PW and CW - the price difference is just for the colour doppler.

I definitely want to more than the just the basics - in time, with experience and training of course. I am sure that the operator is a large factor in how useful the scan is.

Sarah

Re: Usefulness of Colour Doppler? Pretty pictures?

Rajat — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 18:41:30 GMT

Hi Sarah

I think you'll quickly find yourself using colour doppler especially if you plan to start learning echo. It is pretty useful in the abdomen as well, especially when doing FNAbs (is it a cyst or a blood vessel and can I stick a needle into it?). You can use it to assess vascularity which sometimes can be very useful to detect neoplasia (some can be very vascular). It helps to guide your doppler analysis of certain vessels and certainly for cardiac work I cant see myself doing scans without colour doppler. It helps to guide placement of the doppler gate for measurement of velocities when there is turbulence.

Is the quote you're getting for Colour doppler include Pulsed wave doppler/ CW doppler or not?

I guess it also depends on your use of the machine. If you're mainly doing scans to do cystocentesis, check contractility and chamber size of hearts, check for tumour or no tumour (i.e relatively straighforward) then it'd be fine to do without. But if you're interested in ultrasound and want to develop your skills then definitely go for this option!

Hope this helps

Cheer

sRaj