Vascular signals from pleura‐based lung lesions studied with pulsed Doppler ultrasonography

Abstract

Vascular signals arising from pleura‐based lung lesions were studied in 50 patients using pulsed Doppler ultrasonography. Twenty‐seven had malignant lesions and 23 benign lesions. In 24/27 of the malignant masses, we observed no Doppler signals: in 2 cases, a low‐velocity, turbulent, pulsatile flow was demonstrated; in 1 case pulsed Doppler ultrasonography showed only a low‐velocity, continuous flow. In 20/23 of the benign lesions, we found 2 types of Doppler signal waveforms: an irregularly pulsatile, venous‐like signal, and a regularly pulsatile, arterial‐like waveform. The last 8 patients of our series underwent color Doppler ultrasound examination, which demonstrated the presence of arterial and venous vessels in 4 benign lesions and the absence of blood flow in 4 malignant masses. To our knowledge, we report for the first time the ability of obtaining Doppler signals from a variety of lung lesions. The actual clinical relevance of this application requires further studies. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.