What type of Doppler technique uses color coding to display velocities and blood flow direction?

Color Doppler is a Doppler ultrasound technique that utilizes color coding to represent blood flow velocities and direction in a two-dimensional format. This technique overlays a color map on a grayscale image, allowing clinicians to visualize the speed and direction of blood flow within vessels. The colors typically represent different velocities, with red often indicating blood flow towards the transducer and blue indicating flow away from it. This immediate visual feedback is invaluable for assessing vascular conditions and determining the presence of abnormalities such as stenosis or turbulent flow.

In contrast, the other options do not utilize color coding in the same manner. Continuous Wave (CW) Doppler measures high-velocity flow but does not provide specific visual display for direction or speed on a color scale. Pulsed Doppler can give information about flow velocities but is generally displayed in a spectral format rather than color-coded imagery. Spectral analysis, while providing detailed information about velocity profiles, does not show directional blood flow through color coding, making Color Doppler the distinct choice for visualizing these dynamics at a glance.