Assessment of acute microcirculatory changes by color Doppler sonography

We studied the efficacy of color Doppler sonography in the transcutaneous assessment of acute changes in microvascular flow. Arterial and venous occlusion studies were performed in rabbits after simple isolation of the common femoral artery and vein and after raising an epigastric island flap. Vessel diameters were measured through an operating microscope and compared to color Doppler determinations of the diameters. Vessel patency and blood flow in the major vessels were monitored before and after occlusion. The correlation of vessel diameters measured under the operating microscope and with color Doppler sonography was .91 for the arteries and .39 for the veins. A strong linear correlation existed between Doppler identification of arterial occlusion, but not of venous occlusion. This study demonstrated that color Doppler sonography can be used transcutaneously to reliably assess patency and blood flow in the small vessels. Time-dependent, reproducible patterns in the spectral waveform analysis were indicative of the onset of arterial or venous occlusion.