Christian Doppler is 200 years young

Christian Doppler was born 200 years ago in Salzburg, Austria, on November 29, 1803, worked in Prague and Vienna and died 150 years ago in Venice. In an article of eight pages he described the principle, which made him famous. It appeared in 1842 with the exotic title: "On the Coloured Light of the Double Stars and Certain Other Stars of the Heaven". The validity of his principle for velocity measurement was confirmed by trumpet sounds produced on a train moving towards and away from the observer. Around 1960 Japanese scientists suggested that flow velocity in blood vessels could be determined by analysing the difference of frequency between emitted and backscattered ultrasound. Rushmer and coworkers built machines suitable for medicine in Seattle, where Eugene Strandness recognized their potential and applied them in first studies. In 1967 the technique jumped to Europe and started to be used worldwide. Already by using continuous wave ultrasound it was possible to diagnose occlusive disease of neck and limb arteries, venous thrombosis and valvular insufficiency with accuracy. Measurements of postestenotic ankle blood pressure were facilitated by Doppler sensing. Over the years more sophisticated instruments were developed. Pulsed emission of ultrasound waves opened a way to study flow velocity profiles across large vessels. By combining the method with A or B mode ultrasound blood flow could be quantified and finally perfused segments of blood vessels visualized. Duplex scanning in its simple and then in its colour coded version is nowadays the standard non-invasive technique that nobody would like to miss. Vascular territories like intracranial, renal and intestinal arteries can also be explored. For the assessment of microvascular flow in skin and mucosae laser Doppler instruments were introduced.