Time-averaged mean velocity for volumetric blood flow measurements: An in vitro model validation study using physiological femoral artery flow waveforms

This study assesses the accuracy of the volume flow measurement of the ATL HDI 3000 duplex ultrasound scanner using a model of the femoral arterial ci rculation. The beam profile of the transducer was measured, and used to ide ntify regions of the beam where there may be poor insonation characteristic s. The flow measurement accuracy was not found to be influenced by the vess el depth between 1.0 cm and 8.0 cm in a 0.7 cm diameter vessel. Overall acc uracy was 3% +/- 9%, Vessels in excess of 0.9 cm produced larger errors. In the model system, pulse rates between 60 bpm and 120 bpm had no significan t effect on the measurement accuracy (p > 0.01). The results of this study suggest that accurate measurements of femoral arterial blood flow are possi ble, Further work will be required to assess the accuracy of the technique in vivo, (C) 1999 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology.