Annex A > Chapter 3 - Developments in the UK, in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Congenital Heart Abnormalities in Children, 1984-1995 > Diagnosis and initial assessment > Colour-flow mapping of Doppler echocardiography

Colour-flow mapping of Doppler echocardiography

18 Towards the end of the 1980s and during the early 1990s, colour mapping of the ultrasound Doppler signals created the facility to observe the nature of blood flow in the heart and major blood vessels and enabled clearer demonstration of abnormal holes and valves as well as abnormal connections of blood vessels. By around 1992 these techniques had become sufficiently well developed for virtually all paediatric cardiologists to be able to rely on them. Many of the patients who in earlier years would have been subjected to cardiac catheterisation could now have their condition diagnosed by these modern ultrasound techniques. Echocardiography, with all of its developments, is also an ideal method for assessing the post-operative state of the heart, both in the operating theatre and later in the intensive care unit (ICU), the wards and the outpatient department.

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