by Parrish Blanding

Created on: July 12, 2010   Last Updated: July 29, 2010

The role of Vascular Ultrasound for evaluating vascular disease is simple.  Ultrasound is the number one tool for evaluating vascular disease in the large vessels of the body.  There are multiple reasons for the emergence of Ultrasound in this role.

Ultrasound is one of the most cost effective medical imaging tools in use.  The price of an ultrasound exam is less expensive than any of the other major imaging tools with the exception of plain film X-ray.

The accuracy of Ultrasound evaluation for vascular disease is well documented.  Although results are highly dependent upon the skill of the Sonographer and the quality of the machine in use, studies have shown Ultrasound to be highly accurate in categorizing patients in the normal and abnormal range as well as the severity of the disease if present.

Ultrasound is noninvasive.  What does this mean?  Noninvasive basically means that you will not get poked with a needle.  A noninvasive procedure is advantageous not simply because no one likes being poked by a needle.  If the barrier of your skin is left intact than the risk of infection is reduced dramatically.

Ultrasound uses no radiation and has never been proven to produce harmful effects at the diagnostic level.  There have been studies done where scientists have increased the power of the ultrasound wave and decreased the frequency of the wave to produce a vibration of the tissues in lab animals.  This vibration in turn produces heat through friction.  This type of ultrasound is used in therapy and is called Therapeutic Ultrasound.  As opposed to Diagnostic Ultrasound, Therapeutic Ultrasound has the potential of causing tissue damage if the temperature of the vibrating tissue rises too high.

There are two categories in vascular evaluation where Ultrasound is many times used as the sole diagnostic imaging tool.  These categories are Normal and Severally Abnormal.  Patients with normal studies are generally sent home with no further vascular evaluation.  Patients who are severally abnormal are many times sent directly to the surgeon.  When a patie falls in between these two categories they likely are a candidate for further evaluation with invasive medical imaging such as Venogram or Arteriogram procedures.

In the last 25 years Vascular Ultrasound has established itself in the world of medicine.  In fact, the very question of what is “the role of vascular ultrasound for the evaluation of vascular disease” is somewhat past its time.  That is to say, not many people would ask what is the role of X-ray in the evaluation of bone fractures.

Learn more about this author, Parrish Blanding.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.