Color flow Doppler provides a simple means for studying blood flow velocity from the central cerebral veins in newborn infants. Twenty-two term infants were examined during the first four days of life to establish a normal range for velocity from the vein of Galen. A wide range of velocities was found between individuals (2.3 cm.s-1 to 9.5 cm.s-1), but short-term intraindividual variation was small (root mean square variation 1.1 cm.s-1). Light bilateral jugular venous compression was performed in 17 of the infants and produced a fall of up to 63% in venous flow velocity in 12 infants (p = 0.0005).