Super color Doppler

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(source)

The Chinese says:

cǎichāo

彩超

lit. "color super"

Google Translate has "Color Doppler", which is not bad at all, in fact quite good.

Here's the deeper, fuller story about the Chinese, from Diana Shuheng Zhang:

Cǎichāo 彩超 is the abbreviated form of cǎisè Duōpǔlè chāoshēng 彩色多普勒超声, meaning “Color Doppler Ultrasound”.

Here's an explanation of the technology from MedLinePlus:

What is a Doppler ultrasound?

A Doppler ultrasound is an imaging test that uses sound waves to show blood moving through blood vessels. A regular ultrasound also uses sound waves to create images of structures inside the body, but it can't show blood flow.

Doppler ultrasound works by measuring sound waves that are reflected from moving objects, such as red blood cells. This is known as the Doppler effect.

There are different types of Doppler ultrasound tests. They include:

    • Color Doppler. This type of Doppler uses a computer to change sound waves into different colors. These colors show the speed and direction of blood flow in real time.
    • Power Doppler, a newer type of color Doppler. It can provide more detail of blood flow than standard color Doppler. But it cannot show the direction of blood flow, which can be important in some cases.
    • Spectral Doppler. This test shows blood flow information on a graph, rather than color pictures. It can help show how much of a blood vessel is blocked.
    • Duplex Doppler. This test uses standard ultrasound to take images of blood vessels and organs. Then a computer turns the images into a graph, as in spectral Doppler.
    • Continuous wave Doppler. In this test, sound waves are sent and received continuously. It allows for more accurate measurement of blood that flows at faster speeds.

Enough for the Chinese.

Moving on to the Mongolian, first from Jichang Lulu:

The Mongolian is a (seemingly correct) translation. I can't tell if it's perfectly idiomatic, but it's clearly not a shén fānyì 神翻譯 ("divine translation") like the English.
 
ᠥᠩᠭᠡᠲᠦ ᠬᠡᠲᠦ ᠳᠥᠯᠭᠢᠶᠠᠨ᠍ ᠤ ᠋ᠵᠢᠷᠦᠭ
[᠋may not display correctly]
 
önggetü ketü dolgiyan-u jiruɣ
 
өнгөт хэт долгионы зураг
 
öngöt khet dolgiony zurag
 
colour[adj] ultra wave-GEN picture
 
That has ‘ultra-wave’ instead of ‘ultrasound [waves]’ — хэт авиа[ны долгион].
 
Some cursory googling suggests өнгөт допплер öngöt doppler might to be more commonly used. Two sample sources of possible relevance, here and here (pdf).
 
However, a PRC Chinese-Mongolian dictionary indeed gives ‘ketü dolgiyan’ [literally ‘ultra waves’] for chāoshēngbō 超聲波 ‘ultrasound’. The term thus appears to be standard in Inner Mongolian, following a likely Chinese-inspired abbreviation pattern.

From Dotno Pount:

The Mongolian matches the Chinese. It says önggetü ketü dolgiyan-u ĵiruġ or "colored ultrasound imaging." The term for ultrasound is a calque translation from Chinese (literally 'ultra wave'; the word 'sound' is dropped altogether), and it does not match the usage in Mongolia, where ultrasound is usually called 'echo.' This mismatch is pretty typical. I doubt any Inner Mongolian actually uses this translation for ultrasound. Most people I know would just say it in Chinese. Neither is as fun as the English version!

Now the little green figures and monitor inside the white circle make perfect sense to me!

Selected readings



2 Comments

  1. Gnaneshwar Gaddam said,

    August 27, 2022 @ 9:54 am

    Wonderful!

  2. Daniel Barkalow said,

    August 29, 2022 @ 10:43 am

    I'm imagining the English-speaking patients who, if they see the images from this device would tend to think that the color is weird (color from doppler analysis is kind of tricky to interpret and very much not showing what color shows in nature). I think they'd be glad to know that the doctors, at least, think it's super.

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