Investigation of Ultrasound-Measured Flow Velocity, Flow Rate and Wall Shear Rate in Radial and Ulnar Arteries Using Simulation

Xiaowei Zhou, Chunming Xia, Stephen Gandy, Faisel Khan, George A. Corner, Peter R. Hoskins, Zhihong Huang (Lead / Corresponding author)

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)
387 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Parameters of blood flow measured by ultrasound in radial and ulnar arteries, such as flow velocity, flow rate and wall shear rate, are widely used in clinical practice and clinical research. Investigation of these measurements is useful for evaluating accuracy and providing knowledge of error sources. A method for simulating the spectral Doppler ultrasound measurement process was developed with computational fluid dynamics providing flow-field data. Specific scanning factors were adjusted to investigate their influence on estimation of the maximum velocity waveform, and flow rate and wall shear rate were derived using the Womersley equation. The overestimation in maximum velocity increases greatly (peak systolic from about 10% to 30%, time-averaged from about 30% to 50%) when the beam-vessel angle is changed from 30° to 70°. The Womersley equation was able to estimate flow rate in both arteries with less than 3% error, but performed better in the radial artery (2.3% overestimation) than the ulnar artery (15.4% underestimation) in estimating wall shear rate. It is concluded that measurements of flow parameters in the radial and ulnar arteries with clinical ultrasound scanners are prone to clinically significant errors.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)981-992
Number of pages12
JournalUltrasound in Medicine and Biology
Volume43
Issue number5
Early online date21 Feb 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2017

Keywords

  • Computational fluid dynamics
  • Radial artery
  • Ulnar artery
  • Flow velocity
  • Flow rate
  • Wall shear rate
  • Womersley
  • Doppler ultrasound

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