Premium
Reproducibility of Duplex Ultrasonography and Air Plethysmography Used for the Evaluation of Chronic Venous Insufficiency
Author(s) -
Asbeutah Akram Mahmoud,
Riha Andrea Zdena,
Cameron James Donald,
McGrath Barry Patrick
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of ultrasound in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.574
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1550-9613
pISSN - 0278-4297
DOI - 10.7863/jum.2005.24.4.475
Subject(s) - medicine , plethysmograph , reproducibility , duplex ultrasonography , chronic venous insufficiency , coefficient of variation , reflux , nuclear medicine , thrombosis , ultrasonography , radiology , cardiology , surgery , disease , statistics , mathematics
Objective The purpose of this study was to determine the reproducibility of measurements on duplex ultrasonography (DU) and air plethysmography (APG) in subjects with post‐thrombotic syndrome. Methods Duplex ultrasonography and APG were used to measure indices of lower limb venous reflux in 15 limbs with a history of deep vein thrombosis and evidence of venous insufficiency as diagnosed by ultrasonography. Three limbs were in class 0; 4 were in classes 1 to 3; and 8 were in classes 4 to 6, according to clinical, etiologic, anatomic, and pathophysiologic clinical classification. Duplex ultrasonography was performed 3 times on the same day, and venous diameter, area, peak reflux velocity, reflux flow volume, and reflux duration measurements were obtained. Air plethysmography was performed on 2 days, 7 to 10 days apart, with 1 measurement on the first day and 2 measurements on the second day. Values obtained from APG included outflow fraction, venous filling index, ejection fraction, and residual volume fraction. The measurements were performed by a vascular technologist blinded to the previous test results. One‐way analysis of variance, the Student paired t test, and Bland‐Altman plots were used to examine the statistical differences of the DU and APG parameters for all measurements. Results The mean coefficient of variation for within‐subject measurements of all DU and APG parameters measured was less than 10%. Bland‐Altman plots showed that there were no apparent trends with increasing values over a wide range for any of the DU parameters, nor were there any for the APG parameters. Conclusions Under ideal conditions, when measured by a highly trained technologist, both DU and APG showed satisfactory reproducibility.