Purpose: To present duplex scanning of the central retinal artery, which the authors have termed duplex scanner imaging, as an alternative to color Doppler imaging in the evaluation of retinal blood flow velocity, and to show the difference in measurements obtained with the two different techniques.
Methods: The high-resolution ATL-Ultramark 4 duplex scanner (Advanced Technology Laboratories, Bothell, WA) with the variable focus access probe was used to measure blood flow velocity of the central retinal artery in the eyes of 48 healthy volunteers.
Results: Using this technique the peak systolic flow velocity (+/- standard deviation [SD]) of the central retinal artery was 36.6 +/- 10.8 cm/sec, and the end diastolic flow velocity was 12.6 +/- 3.7 cm/sec.
Conclusion: The flow velocity measurements of the central retinal artery obtained with this technique were much higher than those obtained by other authors using color Doppler imaging (9.6 cm/sec for the peak systolic flow velocity, and 4.7 cm/sec for the end diastolic flow velocity). The authors propose duplex scanner imaging as an alternative to color Doppler imaging for evaluating retinal blood flow velocity. The duplex scanner also can be used to measure the flow velocity of orbital vessels.