Colour-flow Doppler artifacts in anechoic soft-tissue masses of infants

Colour-flow Doppler imaging is a noninvasive, readily accessible method of assessing the vascularity of soft-tissue masses. To produce acceptable images of flowing blood, various types of signal processing are needed to suppress the colour in moving but nonvascular masses. The author describes two infants with anechoic soft-tissue masses; both masses demonstrated colour flow. One patient had a vascular hemangioma, in which the colour was due to blood flow; the other had a nonvascular lymphangioma, in which the colour was caused by persistent movement between the transducer and the leg being scanned. Artifacts such as that observed in the lymphangioma may be misinterpreted as flow, unless Doppler spectral analysis is employed. Differentiation between vascular and nonvascular soft-tissue masses before surgical excision is important.