POWER VERSUS CONVENTIONAL COLOR DOPPLER SONOGRAPHY - COMPARISON IN THE DEPICTION OF NORMAL INTRARENAL VASCULATURE

PURPOSE: To compare power Doppler sonography with color Doppler sonography in the depiction of normal intrarenal vasculature. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty kidneys in 10 healthy, nonobese subjects were studied with color Doppler and power Doppler sonography at 3.5 MHz and a pulse repetition frequency of 800 Hz. The color gain was increased until ''noise'' first became perceptible. To standardize comparison, an ultrasound phantom was scanned with both techniques at the mean depth of each kidney. RESULTS: Power Doppler sonography demonstrated a diffuse ''blush'' of either the entire or almost the entire cortex in 18 of 20 kidneys and in approximately half the cortex of the two other kidneys. Color Doppler sonography did not depict a cortical blush in any kidney. In addition, subjective comparison showed that power Doppler sonography demonstrated the intrarenal vasculature better than color Doppler sonography in all kidneys. CONCLUSION: Power Doppler sonography was superior to color Doppler sonography in the demonstration of normal intrarenal vasculature.