What Can a Vascular Ultrasound Reveal About My Health?

Vascular ultrasound is a cutting-edge, completely noninvasive, diagnostic imaging procedure that uses high-frequency sound waves to create images of the inside of your veins and evaluate blood flow in the arteries and veins of the arms, neck, and legs. It allows doctors to diagnose potential cardiovascular problems that might lead to serious complications such as heart attack or stroke.

At Heart Vascular & Leg Center, our expert team of vascular specialists uses vascular ultrasound to evaluate potential problems with arterial or venous blood flow; the results inform the proper treatment of your condition. Here’s what a vascular ultrasound can say about your health.

What vascular ultrasound does

The sound waves that a vascular ultrasound uses pass easily through your soft tissues and blood vessels, creating echoes as they go. A computer turns those echoes into images or videos.

For the test, you lie back on an examination table. The technologist performing the test applies a lubricating gel to your skin in the areas of your arteries and veins.

The gel helps the transducer (the probe that moves over your skin) move freely to generate clear images. You may feel slight pressure but no pain, and you may hear the whooshing of your blood as it flows by the recorder.

That’s it. The technologist wipes away the gel, and you’re free to go. Once the radiologist has examined the images and reported them to us, we let you know the test’s results and any next steps.

What can a vascular ultrasound say about my health?

We may use vascular ultrasound as a diagnostic tool to understand how blood flows through your veins and arteries and to help diagnose:

• Atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)
• Blood clots (block blood flow)
• Carotid artery disease (atherosclerosis in the carotid arteries that supply the brain)
• Extracranial carotid artery aneurysm (a bulge in the arterial wall)
• Chronic venous insufficiency (insufficient or impaired blood flow)
• Deep vein thrombosis (clot in the deep veins of the legs)
• Peripheral artery disease (atherosclerosis in the lower extremities)

A vascular ultrasound can also determine if you’re a good candidate for angioplasty or to check your blood vessel health following bypass surgery.

The ultrasound results help determine what you and we need to do next, such as make lifestyle changes, try blood-thinning medication to break up clots, or have a minimally invasive procedure to repair damage or remove hardened plaque from the artery walls.

If you’re having symptoms like varicose veins, high blood pressure, or warmth and swelling in a leg, you need to come into the Heart Vascular & Leg Center for an evaluation, which may include a vascular ultrasound. To learn more or to set up a consultation with one of our doctors, call our office at 661-443-5524 or book online today.