A methodological study of computerized venous strain-gauge plethysmography of the upper extremities

This study was performed to assess the efficiency of computerized strain-gauge plethysmography for evaluation of venous volume (VV) and outflow capacity of the upper extremities and to receive reference values. For this purpose, we investigated 34 healthy controls; 16 males and 18 females with a mean age of 45 years (range 31-58 years). These results were compared with those obtained in 32 patients with earlier spontaneous deep venous thrombosis (DVT) in the upper extremities. In the control group, there was no difference between right and left arm and none of the variables were influenced by age and gender. Venous volume and rate of venous emptying (VE) were significantly lower in arms with earlier DVT than in those without (VV: DVT arms 3.7+/-0.96 ml 100ml-1 and controls 4.6+/-0.81 ml 100 ml-1; VE: DVT arms 79+/-24 ml 100 ml-1 min-1 and controls 110+/-21 ml 100 ml-1 min-1). Repeated measurements had a coefficient of variation of approximately 10% in both groups. We found the device easy to handle and the results demonstrates that this is a useful method to study venous function in upper extremities. This implicates that computerized strain-gauge plethysmography is an efficient method both for clinical diagnostic routine and research studies of circulatory changes in acute and chronic DVT in the upper extremity.