[Duplex ultrasound and color-coded Doppler ultrasound of visceral blood vessels in abdominal diseases].

Duplex Doppler sonography (DS) and color-flow Doppler sonography (FDS) are noninvasive diagnostic methods for the evaluation of a patient with suspected vascular disease of the abdomen. They represent a useful adjunct to realtime sonography in the identification of normal and variant visceral vascular anatomy. Aneurysms and pseudo-aneurysms of visceral arteries are readily differentiated from other cystic lesions. DS and FDS have a high sensitivity in the detection of portal vein thrombosis and stenosis. Both methods allow the observation and measurement of splanchnic hemodynamics in patients with chronic liver disease and portal hypertension. Hence, DS and FDS already play an important role in the pre- and postoperative assessment of patients undergoing liver or pancreas transplantation. The possibility that DS and FDS may enable discrimination between hypovascular and hypervascular tumors is under clinical investigation. FDS facilitates an excellent anatomic display of the abdominal vasculature and allows easy placement of the Doppler sample volume. Consequently, quantitative data acquired with DS are accomplished within short scanning times. However, the diagnostic impact of both modalities depends to a great extent on the experience of the investigator.