[Color Doppler echocardiography: expanded noninvasive cardiologic diagnosis]

Two-dimensional color Doppler flow mapping (CD) provides actual information concerning the spatial distribution of blood flow within the heart and the great vessels. CD enables the differentiation between physiological and pathological blood flow situations and provides additional information concerning turbulence, velocity and spatial relations. Thus rapid semiquantitative assessment of regurgitant lesions, detection of eccentric jets across stenotic valves and imaging of intracardiac shunts is possible. The development of CD represents an important improvement regarding noninvasive cardiology.