Color Doppler

Doppler imaging mode that displays blood-flow velocity as a colored overlay on the B-mode image. Convention: red toward the probe, blue away from the probe. Color-Doppler shows direction and rough magnitude across a region of interest; quantitative velocity measurement happens with Pulsed Wave or CW Doppler.

Why it matters to buyers: Vascular and cardiac core capability — present on every premium cart and on most mid-tier and POCUS platforms. The differentiator at premium tier is sensitivity at low-velocity flow (capillary, hepatic, pediatric) and freedom from artifact.

Why it matters to engineers: Doppler angle affects measured velocity (cosine error); operators correct manually. Wall-filter settings, color-priority, and persistence are tuning parameters that materially change the displayed image. Color sensitivity and aliasing artifacts are the most-watched QC parameters.

Related

• B-mode
• Pulsed Wave Doppler
• CW Doppler
• Ultrasound
• Abdominal Ultrasound
• Diagnostic Cardiac Cath (vascular adjunct)
• Sonographer