1 Jul 2008Review
Lower limb veins color and spectral Doppler ultrasonography examination. An examination protocol
Athanasios Chalazonitis 1Nicolas Condilis 2Joannie Tzovara 3Nikolaos Ptohis 1Fotios Laspas 1Ioannis Neofytou 1Eleni Feida 4Artemisia Tzannetaki 4
Affiliations
Article Info
1 Department of Radiology, General Hospital of Athens “Hippocration”, Athens, Greece.
2 General Practitioner, Department of Familiar Medicine, 6th Municipal Health Center of Athens, Greece.
3 Department of Radiology, “IASO” General Hospital, Athens, Greece
4 Department of Radiology, General Hospital of Athens “Alexandra”, Greece
Ann. Ital. Chir., 2008, 79(4), 273-280;
Published: 1 Jul 2008
Copyright © 2008 Annali Italiani di Chirurgia
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Lower extremity’s venous pathology was traditionally investigated by intravenous venography. Nowadays Color Doppler flow imaging is widely accepted as a well established, noninvasive method for the evaluation of deep pelvic and lower extremity’s venous system. The vast majority of authors conclude that the method can safely replace diagnostic venography in all patients with venous thrombosis, thrombophlebitis and valve or communicating veins insufficiency. Optimal performance of Color Doppler flow imaging as a diagnostic tool for the whole lower limb veins requires: – proper equipment specifications and settings – knowledge of regional venous anatomy – established examination protocols – evaluation of morphological and functional findings – documentation of the findings. All these steps are described as a sequence of guidelines, photographs and multiple ultrasonographic images. Our paper can be useful to all physicians or sonographers involved with color Doppler studies for the evaluation of lower limb venous diseases and abnormalities.
Keywords
- Color Doppler
- Ultrasonography
- Veins