DEVELOPMENT OF ULTRASOUND TECHNIQUES FOR ASSESSMENT OF AORTOILIAC OBSTRUCTIVE DISEASE

The development of ultrasound techniques for assessment of aortoiliac obstructive disease is described. This period started in 1959 with the detection of blood flow with an ultrasonic device. Continuous-wave Do ppler devices were designed, and the pulse waves of readily accessible vessels like the common femoral artery were examined. It was soon rec ognized that the functional status of the aortoiliac arteries could be assessed by the Doppler characteristics of the common femoral artery pulse wave. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyze the femoral Doppler signal. The introduction of duplex scanning made i t possible to evaluate the hemodynamics of aortoiliac arteries directl y. At present, duplex scanning offers the best method of evaluating th e aortoiliac arteries noninvasively.