Color Doppler detection of acoustic streaming in a hematoma model

Accurate differentiation between stagnant blood and soft tissue or clotted and unclotted blood has potential value in managing trauma patients with in ternal hemorrhage. Determination by regular ultrasound (US) imaging is some times difficult because the sonographic appearance of blood, clots and soft tissue may be similar. A hematoma model was developed to investigate the u se of acoustic streaming for hematoma diagnosis in an in vivo environment. The results showed that a derated spatial peak temporal average (SPTA) inte nsity of 30 W/cm(2) was needed to generate color-Doppler-detectable streami ng in stirred blood. The streaming velocity increased in proportion to the derated intensity. Streaming was also detected in stagnant blood, but at hi gher intensities. In clots, streaming was not detected even at high intensi ties. The streaming detection may be a valuable tool for improving the dist inction between liquid blood and clots or soft tissue in hematoma diagnosis .