10. Suprasternal view

We can study the aortic arch through a suprasternal projection. The patient lies on their back with a pillow under the neck. The neck is flexed slightly backwards. The probe is placed in the jugular fossa, pointed away from you. We see the ascending aorta to the left in the image and the descending aorta to the right. Color Doppler shows the red flow towards the probe in the ascending aorta, and blue flow where the blood streams downwards in the descending aorta. In this image we can see expansions and contractions in this part of the thoracic aorta.