This site is targeted at medical and radiology professionals, contains user contributed content, and material that may be confusing to a lay audience. Use of this site implies acceptance of our Terms of Use.

Arterial Doppler assessment in LVAD patients

Dr Yuranga Weerakkody and Dr Donna D'Souza et al.

In patients with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), spectral Doppler waveforms are altered due to continuous flow provided by the pump in the device:

waveforms are monophasic with constant antegrade flow and no flow below the baseline.
the waveform is typically parvus-tardus with a slow systolic upstroke and rounded systolic peak.
- less commonly there may be non-pulsatile flow with no systolic peak.
- the systolic peak is thought to be due to intrinsic residual myocardial reserve pumping some of the blood, where as lack of a systolic peak is thought to occur when the left ventricle is simply acting as a passive conduit and all blood is being pumped by the device.
peak systolic velocity is reduced.

These findings have been demonstrated diffusely in multiple arterial beds, including the carotid, vertebral, subclavian and common femoral arteries.

References

This article is in need of some more references!
You can make a difference to Radiopaedia.org by adding some relevant ones.
1. Cervini P, Park SJ, Shah DK, Penev IE, Lewis BD. Carotid Doppler ultrasound findings in patients with left ventricular assist devices, Ultrasound Quarterly 2010 Dec;26(4):255-61.