Incidence of Normal Extremity Venous Duplex Studies Over Time

Author： Kazmers Andris Groehn Harvey Meeker Chris

Publisher： Society for Vascular Ultrasound

ISSN： 1539-5898

Source： Journal of Vascular Technology, Vol.23, Iss.1, 1999-03, pp. : 17-20

Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.

Previous Menu Next

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to define the incidence of normal venous duplex exams in a hospital-based vascular laboratory over two separate time periods during which the triage policy was constant. Results from the first time period have been reported: 759 patients underwent extremity venous duplex from November 1, 1995, through February 28, 1996. During the first 4-month period, 80% of 671 lower extremity venous exams were normal, while 53% of 88 upper extremity venous exams were normal. During the more recent 4-month period (November 1, 1996-February 28, 1997), 746 patients underwent extremity venous duplex. Of the 663 lower extremity studies during the more recent period, 10.1% (n = 67) had acute lower extremity deep venous thrombosis (DVT) (n.s), and 3.6% (n = 24) had acute tibioperoneal or calf vein thrombosis (not significant, n.s.). Of the 83 upper extremity exams done during the recent period, 69% (n = 57) were normal. Acute upper extremity DVT was present in 15.7% (n = 13) during the latter period, which was significantly less common than the 33% incidence of upper extremity acute DVT found during the first period (p < 0.009). More upper extremity studies (15.7%; n = 13) displayed evidence of prior venous thrombosis during the more recent study period, but this did not reach statistical significance.During both study periods, only 10.8% of lower extremity venous duplex studies revealed acute proximal DVT, while 24.6% of upper extremity studies were positive for acute DVT. Achieving a lower frequency of normal venous duplex studies would be desirable to reduce the vascular laboratory workload, but further research is necessary before this can be accomplished safely and cost-effectively.