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What is the difference between Pulsed Doppler and Continuous Wave (CW) Doppler?

1) Pulsed Doppler uses short bursts of ultrasound while CW Doppler uses continuous ultrasound waves.
2) Pulsed Doppler can measure blood flow at specific depths while CW Doppler can measure blood flow at multiple depths simultaneously.
3) Pulsed Doppler is used for qualitative assessment of blood flow while CW Doppler is used for quantitative assessment of blood flow.
4) Pulsed Doppler has better spatial resolution than CW Doppler.

User Hilborn
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Final answer:

The key differences between Pulsed Doppler and Continuous Wave Doppler are their ability to measure at specific depths and their ability to measure high speeds without aliasing. Pulsed Doppler is suitable for high-resolution measurements at specific depths, while CW Doppler is ideal for measuring high-speed flows across multiple depths simultaneously.

Step-by-step explanation:

The difference between Pulsed Doppler and Continuous Wave (CW) Doppler lies in their operating principles and applications. Pulsed Doppler uses short bursts of ultrasound and is capable of measuring blood flow at specific depths, which allows for good spatial resolution but has a limited ability to measure high-speed flows due to the risk of aliasing. In contrast, CW Doppler uses continuous ultrasound waves to measure blood flow, lacking spatial resolution but capable of accurately measuring very high-speed flows as there is no aliasing limit.

  • Pulsed Doppler uses short bursts of ultrasound while CW Doppler uses continuous ultrasound waves.
  • Pulsed Doppler can measure blood flow at specific depths while CW Doppler can measure blood flow at multiple depths simultaneously.
  • Pulsed Doppler has better spatial resolution than CW Doppler.

Both techniques rely on the Doppler shift, a phenomenon that can be observed in various applications such as measuring car velocities with radar, tracking storm cloud motions with Doppler Radar in meteorology, or analyzing red shifts in astronomy to determine galaxy speeds and estimate the age of the universe.

User BTables
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