IN-VIVO VALIDATION OF THE TIME-DOMAIN VELOCITY-MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUE OF BLOOD-FLOW IN HUMAN FETUSES

Time domain ultrasonography is an alternative to Doppler analysis of b lood flow direction and velocity, The time domain technique uses timin g information between successive echo pulses to measure flow velocitie s directly through a color display map, This study was undertaken to v alidate this technique for measuring peak systolic velocity compared t o the pulsed-wave Doppler method in human fetuses. Twenty normally dev eloping fetuses were included in the study, The fetal abdominal aorta and the umbilical artery were studied in 12 and eight cases, respectiv ely, We first estimated how velocity using time domain ultrasonography and inmediately after pulsed Doppler was used. The intraclass correla tion coefficient was used to assess the agreement between measurements , A close correlation was found (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.96), Our results show that time domain ultrasonography seems to be a valid technique for imaging fetal vessels and for measuring blood how velocity. (C) 1998 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine & Biol ogy.