Vascular Ultrasound

No needles or injections.
No ionizing radiation.
Live, realtime, moving images show vein and artery structure, movement and function.

Vascular ultrasound bounces sound waves off your body’s cardio-vascular system to create echos –- realtime, motion images. Without radiation, we can get a picture of how your blood vessels are constructed and functioning to help us monitor your blood’s flow to organs and tissues throughout your body, and assist us with placing repairs or locating blockages, abnormalities, clots, plaque or emboli.

Getting a good look at designated veins and arteries also lets us know if you’re a good candidate for procedures such as angioplasty. We can use information we gather to review the success of grafts or bypasses. Or images may reveal a blood clot, which we can treat in a variety of ways (including blood thinners or filters), to prevent clots from traveling to critical parts of your body such as your lungs (embolism), heart (bloodflow block or heart attack) or brain (stroke).

What’s it like to get a vascular ultrasound?
When you have a vascular ultrasound, arrive wearing comfortable, loose-fitting clothes. You may not require a gown and your technician needs to easily guide the transducer (an ultrasound microphone and transmitter).

For the procedure, you lie down on a table that can tilt in a number of directions. Your technician (a sonographer, vascular technologist or radiologist) applies clear gel to your skin so there’s good contact with the transducer. Then the transducer is moved around until we’ve captured enough images to tell us what we need to know –- generally no longer than a half hour.

If you’re having abdominal vessels examined will you need to fast -- please ask your physician.

Your vascular ultrasound images may be uploaded to our picture archiving and communication system (PACS) –- allowing your team 24/7 access for review and consultation.

If you’d like to study what vascular ultrasound equipment looks like or you’d like more detailed information on how it creates images, please ask anyone in our Radiology Department for helpful pamphlets or Web sites.

If you’re a physician and would like technical specifications on our equipment, or to schedule a vascular ultrasound, please call us at (830) 757-7562.

Note: The information on this Web site is provided as general health guidelines and may not be applicable to your particular health condition. Your individual health status and any required medical treatments can only be properly addressed by a professional healthcare provider of your choice. Remember: There is no adequate substitution for a personal consultation with your physician. Neither Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center, or any of their affiliates, nor any contributors shall have any liability for the content or any errors or omissions in the information provided by this Web site.

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