Quantitative Doppler blood flow measurement method and in vivo calibration

Femoral blood flow (FBF) was measured in seven dogs, simultaneously with both an electromagnetic perivascular probe and a transcutaneous range gated Doppler velocimeter. Measurements were made in basal conditions and during intraarterial infusions of noradrenaline (10 to 400 ng . kg-1 . min-1) and isoprenaline (10 to 400 ng . kg-1 . min-1) thus allowing comparisons of ultrasonic (DBF) and electromagnetic (EMBF) blood flow at 91 different blood flow rates ranging from 5 to 300 cm3 . min-1. The linear regression line through the data of ultrasonic and electromagnetic simultaneous measurement was: DBF = 0.8 + 1.016 EMBF +/- 19.0 cm3 . min-1 with a highly significant correlation (r = 0.96, p less than 0.001) but there was a wide scattering about the mean. Errors in DBF were mainly due to positioning of the probe and determination of arterial diameter.