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

Objective:To evaluate the technique of ultrasound colour Doppler in diagnosing venous valvular incompetence in the lower leg.Design:Prospective clinical study.Setting:Department of clinical physiology.Materials:44 patients (56 legs) referred with a clinical diagnosis of deep venous insufficiency.Chief outcome measures:Colour Doppler and descending phlebography.Main results: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).Conclusions: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