Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology
Volume 34, Issue 5 , Pages 760-774, May 2008

A Method to Estimate Wall Shear Rate with a Clinical Ultrasound Scanner

  • James R. Blake

      Affiliations

    • Medical Physics, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress correspondence to: James Richard Blake, Department of Medical Physics, The Chancellor's Building, University of Edinburgh, 49 Little France Crescent, Edinburgh, UK EH16 4SB.
    • ,
  • Siobhan Meagher

      Affiliations

    • Medical Physics, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
    • ,
  • Katharine H. Fraser

      Affiliations

    • Medical Physics, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
    • ,
  • William J. Easson

      Affiliations

    • The School of Engineering and Electronics, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
    • ,
  • Peter R. Hoskins

      Affiliations

    • Medical Physics, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

Received 26 June 2007; received in revised form 22 October 2007; accepted 2 November 2007. published online 27 February 2008.

Abstract 

A simple technique to estimate the wall shear rate in healthy arteries using a clinical ultrasound scanner has been developed. This method uses the theory of fully developed oscillatory flow together with a spectral Doppler trace and an estimate of mean arterial diameter. A method using color flow imaging was compared with the spectral Doppler method in vascular phantoms and found to have errors that were on average 35% greater. Differences from the theoretic value for the time averaged wall shear rate using the spectral Doppler method varied by artery: brachial −9 (1) %; carotid −7 (1) %; femoral −22 (4) %; and fetal aorta −17 (10) %. Test measurements obtained from one healthy volunteer demonstrated the feasibility of the technique in vivo. E-mail: (james.blake@ed.ac.uk)

Key Words: Doppler ultrasound, Flow phantoms, Wall shear rate, Womersley

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PII: S0301-5629(07)00563-7

doi:10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2007.11.003

Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology
Volume 34, Issue 5 , Pages 760-774, May 2008

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