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Colour Doppler ultrasound in diagnosing venous insufficiency. A comparison to descending phlebography
M Magnusson1, P Kälebo, P Lukes
1Department of Clinical Physiology, Ostra Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden.
Objective:
To evaluate the technique of ultrasound colour Doppler in diagnosing venous valvular incompetence in the lower leg.
Design:
Prospective clinical study.
Setting:
Department of clinical physiology.
Materials:
44 patients (56 legs) referred with a clinical diagnosis of deep venous insufficiency.
Chief Outcome Measures:
Colour Doppler and descending phlebography.
Main Results:
Using phlebography as a "gold standard" the accuracy of the colour Doppler technique varied between 93% and 55% for the different veins. For the superficial and deep femoral veins, the popliteal vein and the long and short saphenous veins the accuracy was between 90% and 70%. The lowest correlation was found for the deep calf veins (55-66% accuracy).
Conclusions:
Colour Doppler was found to be a suitable technique for non-invasive investigation of patients with suspected venous insufficiency. Since the colour Doppler technique is non-invasive it is well suited for follow-up studies. Descending phlebography should be reserved as an adjunct technique in patients scheduled for valve reconstructive surgery.