Colour Doppler ultrasound in diagnosing venous insufficiency a comparison to descending phlebography

Abstract

To evaluate the technique of ultrasound colour Doppler in diagnosing venous valvular incompetence in the lower leg. Prospective clinical study. Department of clinical physiology. 44 patients (56 legs) referred with a clinical diagnosis of deep venous insufficiency. Colour Doppler and descending phlebography. 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). 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.