The Development of Color Doppler Echocardiography: Innovation and Collaboration

Conception, development, innovation, introduction, and validation are some of the steps in the introduction of new technologies and their clinical applications. More than 50 years ago, Doppler techniques and applications were introduced into echocardiography. An important further addition was the introduction of color as a medium for the display of Doppler information. The amplitude of the returning ultrasound signal has been used to generate a black and white image of structure. The phase shift between the transmitted and returning Doppler signal has been used to display Doppler shift information in color. This review focuses on some of the resources critical to this new development, the challenges imposed by the introduction of a new color display, and some of the early clinical validation and applications of color Doppler echocardiography.