ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the color Doppler ultrasound in diagnosing venous diseases of lower extremity, and to compare it with DSA. Methods By using color Doppler ultrasound (CDUS)apparatus, two-dimensional spectrum, color Doppler flow image, pulse wave Doppler and Valsalva examination were performed in 48 patients with suspected venous diseases of lower extremity. The CDUS findings were compared with DSA findings. Results Of 48 cases with suspected lower extremity venous diseases, deep vein thrombosis formation was confirmed in 27, among them 15 were accompanied with lower extremity deep venous valvular incompetence, 8 were complicated by lower extremity varicosity and 2 were associated with both conditions. Another one had cyst in the left popliteal fossa and popliteal venous thrombosis. Decreased blood flow in iliac veins was found in some cases. Pure lower extremity venous valvular incompetence was seen in 5 cases and pure lower extremity superficial varicosity in 6 cases. Six cases suffered both valvular incompetence and superficial varicosity. CDUS showed normal findings in 4 cases, of them DSA demonstrated compressed iliac vein in 2. When taking DSA as golden standard, the accuracy of CDUS was 95.83%. By using the uniformity test, Kappa value was 0.65. Conclusion CDUS is of great clinical usefulness in diagnosing venous diseases of lower extremity as well as in evaluating the therapeutic effect.