Vascular insights with MRI and ultrasound

An array of ultrasound techniques

Ultrasound is still the most popular and widely used examination to image the vascular structures, explained Dr Zoltan Harkanyi, a consultant radiologist at the department of radiology, Heim Pal National Pediatric Institute in Budapest, Hungary, in the following talk. ‘It’s the only modality that is totally harmless and easy to tolerate for patients,’ he said, adding its widespread availability to the list of benefits. On the other hand, ultrasound is a highly user-dependent technique, with great differences in quality and performance from one examination site to another. 

With conventional methods such as B-mode, colour Doppler and spectral Doppler, ultrasound has helped analyse and measure flow velocity for the past 30 years. ‘Ultrasound is very useful to assess certain diseases like carotid artery stenosis, when the brain blood flow needs to be checked,’ he gave an example. The stenosis is typically caused by plaque or calcification in the internal carotid artery – a tell-tale sign that is easy to detect with ultrasound. 

Hypertension is another common application for ultrasound, especially in patients who suffer from renal disease and can’t undergo a CT or MRI scan. Different software solutions are available today that also enable assessment of the microvascular structure and exploration of tiny vessels with high resolution without contrast injection (Fig.1).