Color Doppler Imaging to Diagnose Ocular Disorders

ABSTRACT

Color Doppler imaging(CDI) facilitates the study of orbital vasculature by color encoding the Doppler frequency shifts of blood flow, superimposing this color on B-scan anatomic detail. In a patient with ocular ischemic syndrome, maximal systolic velocity of the ophthalmic artery in the ischemic eye was reduced markedly when compared with the contralateral control eye. CDI revealed no detectable blood flow velocities within the mass in cavernous hemangioma of the orbit. In a patient with carotid-cavernous fistula, CDI demonstrated a typical low-resistance blood flow pattern of the arterialized vein. Noninvasive CDI may be helpful diagnostic aid for disorders of the eye and orbit.