Aorta is the blood vessel which carries the blood pumped by the heart. From the Aorta the blood goes into different arteries. The flow of blood in the aorta is with a lot of high pressure. This can cause weakening of the walls of aorta and result in an aneurysm. Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) is a rare condition and mostly asymptomatic. Due to this reason many patients with AAA are missed out and in the event of rupture of the aneurysm, saving the life of the patient becomes very difficult. Most of the cases of AAA are incidental findings during Ultrasound Abdomen Examination and that too if the radiologist is well experienced. If aneurysm is detected on ultrasound, then colour doppler study of abdomen is done to confirm the diagnosis. CT Angiography or MR Angiography can be followed to get more detailed information about the aneurysm before going for surgical repair of the aneurysm.
Apart from the Aorta, there are many more arteries and veins in the abdominal area. Abdominal Colour Doppler is advised when the patient has Swelling / palpable lump in abdomen, enlarged liver or spleen, blood in vomitting or stool, fatty liver, cramping pain the abdomen after meals etc. Studies included under abdominal colour doppler are portal vein colour doppler study, hepatic vein colour doppler study, mesentric colour doppler study. The advantages of colour doppler studies of the abdomen are that it has no radiation and can be performed quite easily even on pregnant women. There is no contrast that needs to be injected and even the patients with poor kidney function can get this test. The cost of colour doppler is also lower than contrast CT Scan or MRI of the abdomen which also makes it an attractive investigation for vascular diseases of the abdominal organs.
The cost of abdominal colour doppler is in the range of Rs. 3000 - 4500 at our different centres. Most of the radiologists are trained in doing Ultrasound Scans but not all the radiologists are comfortable in doing the colour doppler studies. Proper training and adequate experience is required for performing different types of colour dopplers. The ultrasound machine and its features also play a very important role in doing good quality colour doppler scans. Colour Doppler is actually a study of blood vessels in the body and achieves its objectives at a much lower cost than Contrast Angiography on CT Scan or MRI which also studies the flow of blood in the arteries and veins. We have multiple centres in the NCR Region and you can get appointment at any of our centres by calling on the numbers +91-8800188334 / 8800188335 / 8800188336.
Dr Rajesh Choudhary has more than 20 years of experience in the field of Radiology. Dr Choudhary has been trained in the latest radiological techniques from Sardar Patel Medical College, Bikaner and PGI Chandigarh.
Dr Shruti Sangwan has been trained at Lady Hardinge Medical College, Maulana Azad Medical College, PGI Chandigarh and Artemis Hospital Bhiwadi in the field of Radiology and has more than 18 years of experience.