What is vascular ultrasound
Vascular ultrasound, which belongs to the category of ultrasound medicine, is an imaging technique that uses ultrasonic reflection and scattering to display vascular structure, and uses Doppler effect to obtain blood flow information in vessels. It is the first non-invasive examination for early diagnosis, treatment selection and efficacy evaluation of head, neck and peripheral vascular diseases.
What is the main content of vascular ultrasound examination?
Vascular ultrasound can display blood vessel running, morphology, structure and adjacent relationship in real time, and observe whether there is anatomic variation, whether there is vascular wall, intracavity and perivascular lesions. In addition, it can evaluate the state of intravascular blood flow, observe blood filling, determine whether there is stenosis, occlusion, regurgitation, etc., and measure the relevant hemodynamic parameters.
Figure 1. Vascular ultrasound showing tube wall structure, color blood flow and blood flow spectrum
What situations require vascular ultrasound?
(1) Head and neck artery disease: patients with neurological symptoms caused by suspected carotid or vertebral artery stenosis or occlusion (such as dizziness, amaurosis, transient ischemic attack, stroke, etc.).
(2) Peripheral artery disease: patients with limb symptoms caused by suspected limb artery stenosis or occlusion (such as limb pain, numbness, coldness, weakness, etc.).
(3) Peripheral venous disease: Patients with limb or systemic symptoms caused by suspected venous thrombosis or venous valve insufficiency (such as limb swelling, pain, varicose veins, pulmonary embolism, etc.).
(4) Congenital vascular diseases: such as arteriovenous fistula, hemangioma, vascular development slim, absence, etc.
(5) Vascular related operations and operations: such as perioperative evaluation and postoperative follow-up of arterial revascularization, ultrasonic evaluation before and after the establishment of hemodialysis access, etc.
(6) High-risk groups of vascular diseases: patients with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, renal insufficiency, rheumatism and immune diseases, or patients with long-term bed rest and radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Figure 2. Some examples of vascular ultrasound examination. A: Carotid artery stenosis B: Blood flow spectrum at carotid artery stenosis C: lower extremity artery stenosis D: lower extremity deep vein thrombosis
What are the advantages of vascular ultrasound?
Vascular ultrasound is non-radiation, non-invasive, safe and convenient. In addition to real-time dynamic display of vascular structure, it can also provide rich hemodynamic information, which is conducive to comprehensive and systematic diagnosis and evaluation of vascular diseases.
