title: Multiplane transesophageal Doppler echocardiographic measurements of the velocity profile in the human pulmonary artery.
abstract: Eight healthy, unsedated volunteers were studied to introduce a new non-invasive method for detailed blood velocity measurements and to evaluate flow patterns in the human pulmonary artery during end-expiratory apnea. With a multiplane transesophageal ultrasonic probe, spectral Doppler velocity registration was performed in nine different spatial locations across the vessel area. The pulmonary trunk could be visualized in all patients. The mean temporal velocity profile was virtually flat despite an instantaneous skewness that rotated counterclockwise up to 180 degrees. Furthermore, our data indicate that a good estimate of the temporal and spatial mean velocity can be obtained from velocity recordings based on centrally placed sample volumes. This makes the future application of Doppler-based measurement of cardiac output in the pulmonary artery hopeful. The ability of multiplane transesophageal echocardiography to estimate the area of the elastic human pulmonary artery, however, has to be evaluated more extensively before the clinical importance of this tool for measurement of cardiac output can be established.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia, Skejby Sygehus, Arhus University Hospital, Denmark.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sloth
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nygaard
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hasenkam
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Juhl
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000502:physiology; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler / Q000379:methods*; D017548:Echocardiography, Transesophageal / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D011651:Pulmonary Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology